Heavenly Jewel Change Chapter 81-90

Chapter 81 Silver Emperor Wing Slash!

The discussion was not just on the VIP Stage, as many of the other Battle Teams also broke out in discussion, even the seeded teams. To the Five Great Saint Lands, Elemental Jewels with two Attributes was perhaps not considered rare, but for both Attributes to be rare Great Attributes, it was deﬁnitely extremely very rare, like the hair of a phoenix and the horns of a Qilin. Of course, the seeded teams only increased their attention on Zhou Weiqing; as a three-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master, it wasn’t sufﬁcient to threaten them.

The black light of Qing Qian struck Zhou Weiqing without any trouble. Seeing that her Curse of Sluggishness had struck him so easily, a look of disdain ﬂashed in Qing Qian’s eyes, but Zhou Weiqing drew his bow calmly and unhurriedly towards her.

A bizarre scene occurred on Zhou Weiqing, who had been struck with the Curse of Sluggishness; just as the black light reached his head and was about to coalesce into the the symbol for the Curse and take effect, when all of a sudden, the black light shattered like a bubble bursting. Unbelievably, with Qing Qian’s ﬁve-Jeweled cultivation level, her Curse of Sluggishness had failed to take effect on Zhou Weiqing! Darkness Attribute Skills, especially the Curse Type ones, all had a small chance of failure. However, when the difference in levels between both sides were that large, it was almost a guaranteed success. Qing Qian had not expected her Curse of Sluggishness would actually fail.

Right at that moment, along with an explosive sound, Zhou Weiqing had released his attack from his Overlord Bow.

Two arrows shot out from the bow, each heading towards different directions. One, towards Qing Qian, while the other, sky high in Lang Xie’s direction.

Zhou Weiqing had somehow overcome the Curse of Sluggishness, but Lang Xie on the other side had not been immune to Zhou Weiqing’s Curse of Doom. Instantly, three different coloured symbols above his head, and Lang Xie felt a strange coldness in his body.

The Curse of Doom weakened his defense, attack and also increased his sense of pain, and even at the three-Jeweled cultivation level, it was able to affect Lang Xie for ten seconds!

As soon as the Curse of Doom took effect, Lin TianAo instantly felt the difference, as his enemy’s attacks weakened. He immediately reacted, seizing the opportunity as his feet moved swiftly in intricate footwork. The heavy shield in his hand struck out like a wall in various angles as he turned from defense to offense.

Qing Qian quickly recovered from her momentary shock, and a black staff appeared silently in her right hand. At the same time, the black, scalelike armor Consolidated around her right arm, right shoulder and chest, as well as the jet black crown inlaid with a dark red ruby.

As the thick Darkness Attribute aura exploded forth as she summoned all her Consolidated Equipment, Qing Qian waved the staff in her hands. A black light struck out towards the arrow Zhou Weiqing had shot towards her. At the same time, the black light separated into two, striking out towards the other arrow as well, and both were swiftly destroyed.

Although both arrows shattered, the Skills imbued within were also activated. Twelve thick black tentacles spread outwards, curling towards Qing Qian and Lang Xie. This was the ﬁrst arrow shot towards Qing Qian. As for the second arrow, it exploded in midair in a bright ﬂash of silver light, dropping to the ground and sliding a little as the very air split apart; it was the Spatial Rend! Having shattered in midair, it seemed like Zhou Weiqing’s Spatial Rend would be extremely useless. However, at this point, his third arrow arrived.

This arrow actually somehow shot right towards the Spatial Rend! In the dense silver light, the Spatial Rend in midair Blinked silently… appearing directly at the back of Lang Xie.

This was deﬁnitely a top level manipulation of skills. Who could guess that Zhou Weiqing would reenact the fusion of Blink and Spatial Rend, and with such precision, using his arrows!

Only the powerhouses onlooking could see the true key behind Zhou Weiqing’s three arrows. In truth, the Touch of Darkness was the most important – not to attack his opponents or to disable them; with his cultivation level, they were barely harassed for a split second. However, its other extraordinary effect was its increase in his senses. This was also why Zhou Weiqing was able to control his other two arrows and Skills to such an amazing degree.

Furthermore, split second of harassment from the Touch of Darkness had also been key. In order to resist it, Qing Qian had to manipulate her Heavenly Energy to defend herself. At the same time, that also prevented her from assisting Lang Xie in that moment. Yet, that very split second had given Lin TianAo his opportunity.

Lin TianAo was not known for his speed. Yet, his battle consciousness and skill was deﬁnitely the top that Zhou Weiqing had ever seen. In that moment when Lang Xie froze momentarily, Lin TianAo had already activated the Charge Skill from his shield. Bathed in yellow light, his speed increased shockingly as he charged and smashed savagely into Lang Xie.

*CLANG* Lang Xie’s body was struck backwards, and in doing so, he felt an intense pain in his back as his Heavenly Energy lost control, gushing out from his back. It was Zhou Weiqing’s Spatial Rend, which had been sent behind his back with his Blink. This combination and teamwork from Zhou Weiqing and Lin TianAo could be said to be a work of perfection down to every detail. If you were to tell the onlooking audience that they had not practiced this before, it was likely that no one would believe it.

In truth, such an unbelievable teamwork was not led by Zhou Weiqing, but Lin TianAo. What Zhou Weiqing had done was to do his best to Control the opponent and provide the opportunity by having the Spatial Rend appear there. Yet, the truly ingenious cooperation was due to Lin TianAo’s battle consciousness, allowing him to react unbelievably quickly and with the right actions, forcing Lang Xie back into the Spatial Rend.

Lang Xie was indeed worthy of being the Bai Da Team Leader, their top mainstay in the team. As soon as he felt the pain in his back and his Heavenly Energy leaking out, he reacted instantly and without panic. After all, Zhou Weiqing’s cultivation level and power was much lower than his, and although he did not have any defensive abilities, his powerful Stage Nine Heavenly Shen Energy was still able to offer some level of defense.

As a thick green light lit up from the huge spiked mace, Lang Xie grabbed the front of it with his left hand. Gritting his teeth and resisting the intense pain from his back, he shoved the spiked mace in front of him, twisting his body with all his might in a semi circle, forcibly sliding himself and deﬂecting the impact of Lin TianAo’s charge. Making use of the spin torque, he managed to break free, preventing himself from being sliced apart by the Spatial Rend.

Just as Lang Xie sustained the heavy injuries, Zhou Weiqing on the other side did not continue ﬁring arrows, instead surprising everyone with a charge. His body seemed to accelerate as a thick green light enveloped him, and like a huge bear he charged towards Qing Qian.

On the VIP Stage, the calm face of the ZhongTian Skill Storing Palace Master Shangguan Longyin couldn’t help but change when he saw that, exclaiming in surprise: “Wind Attribute! He has a third attribute!”

When Shangguan Longyin looked towards Shangguan Tianxin, he saw a light in his king’s eyes. Both of them knew that although Zhou Weiqing’s cultivation level was not high, such a talent like his with three Attributes would be a force to be reckoned with as soon as he reached six Jewels and higher.

What Zhou Weiqing used was his Wind Attribute Tornado Strike Skill from his Icy Soul Heavenly Bears. The explosive skill caused him to charge forward in almost an instant, and at the same time, he released yet another arrow. Just one arrow this time, and with Mu En’s signature unique archery skill, the Twisting Bowstring Archery. The arrow ﬂew towards Qing Qian at breakneck speed.

A cold light ﬂashed in Qing Qian’s eyes. Never in her wildest imagination did she think that both herself and Lang Xie would have such troubles with a mere three-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master, almost suppressed by him. Lang Xie had been injured, and the fury in her heart was almost at boiling point. In addition to the death of Xu Chuan earlier, her battle spirit was now at its maximum.

Facing Zhou Weiqing’s charge, she lifted her black staff once more, an immense black tornado appearing before her and moving towards Zhou Weiqing and the arrow between them. As soon as she activated this Skill, she also launched herself in the air, sliding silently towards Lin TianAo.

When Zhou Weiqing saw the black tornado, he was also caught by surprise. This was no ordinary simple Darkness Attribute Skill, but a Darkness and Wind fusion skill! It wasn’t necessarily that Qing Qian had two attributes, but her staff had been imbued with it, allowing her to combine its effects with her own Stored Skills to come up with this powerful fusion skill.

As if it had eyes, the black tornado ﬂew straight towards Zhou Weiqing.

Once again, a bright silver light ﬂashed as Zhou Weiqing’s arrow disappeared. It was a Blink Arrow! With a huge explosion, the arrows slammed savagely into Qing Qian, catching her by surprise. Although Qing Qian had a considerable amount of quality of Heavenly Energy, she had been weakened by Ye Paopao in the ﬁrst ﬁght, and had not fully recovered. At the same time, she had expended even more in this ﬁght. Although she quickly reacted to this surprising arrow, dodging it to the best she could, it still slammed hard into her shoulder.

The twin explosive effects of the Overlord Bow and the Twisting Bowstring Archery Skill activated together, combining to form an explosion greater than the sum of its parts. Qing Qian let loose a pained cry, as the Heavenly Energy protecting her shoulder was shattered apart, and her shoulder became a bloody mess of mangled meat. Zhou Weiqing’s archery and control was not to be underestimated, as it struck her unprotected left shoulder.

It was time for the second Socket of the Overlord Bow to show its true power in this critical moment. Besides the Blink Skill, a second Skill had been imbued within, and it was released right at this point!

As the arrow exploded, a bright silver-green light appeared. It was small, barely the length of an index ﬁnger, and silent. The silver-green light only appeared for a split second, but Qing Qian’s body froze… With insufﬁcient Heavenly Energy and caught by surprise, Qing Qian’s protective Heavenly Energy had been destroyed by that Blink Arrow, exploding into her unprotected shoulder. In that opportune moment, the Silver Green Light had tunneled deep into her.

When Zhou Weiqing had ﬁrst seen Mu En use the Twisting Bowstring Archery, it had been against a Zong Stage Heavenly Beast, and it had managed to threaten and damage the Zong Stage Heavenly Beast! With the addition of the Overlord Bow’s explosive effect and the surprise factor, even with his lower cultivation level, that was a shocking success. In truth, from the start of the Heavenly Jewel Tournament, Zhou Weiqing had not used this archery skill, and had kept it for a critical battle. Now that he had unleashed it, it naturally showed its power.

The silver green light was none other than Silver Emperor Wing Slash, which he had Tempered for the last three days.

Having this terrifying Silver Emperor Wing Slash enter her body, how could there be any possible good outcome for her? Qing Qian’s body froze in place, blood pouring out from all her oriﬁces as her internal organs were totally destroyed… as the life ﬂed from her.

Her loss was not just because of her lack of Heavenly Energy, but more importantly, in her mind, Zhou Weiqing was just a mere three-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master. No matter how much importance they had placed on him, it was still as a lower level Jewel Master, and not as an equal. Anyone who had underestimated Zhou Weiqing had never come to a good end; even Lin TianAo himself had suffered such a loss earlier and gambled away his own freedom!

“QIINGG QIAAAN!!!” Seeing Qing Qian mortally wounded, Lang Xie cried out in anguish, shock and pain in his face. Howling with rage, he went berserk, his muscles bulging out abruptly as his strength exploded, dealing a ﬂurry of blows in a frenzied rage towards Lin TianAo. Alas, facing the stable, rock steady Lin TianAo, no matter how his enraged blows ﬂew in from all directions, they were to no avail. He could only watch as the light slowly disappeared from her eyes along with her Consolidated Equipment dissolving into the air, as she crumpled to the ground.

At the other side, Zhou Weiqing was facing the ﬁnal blow of Qing Qian. By now, the black tornado had reached him, Earlier, Zhou Weiqing had burst forth with a sudden speed due to his Tornado Strike, which had been calculated to mislead her into thinking he was not using his bow. Alas, this very action was now extremely costly, as he had sent himself hurtling towards the black tornado without any chance of dodging the ‘locked- on’ tornado.

Zhou Weiqing was clear that with his own cultivation level, if he were to be struck directly by this twin Attribute Fusion Skill, no matter how strong his physique was, he would be disintegrated by it.

Luckily, Qing Qian had perished, and would no longer be able to control the Skill. In that moment of critical danger, a dark gold light sprang forth from Zhou Weiqing’s body, a split second before he entered the black tornado.

As the black tornado ﬁnally expended itself, dissipating slowly, Zhou Weiqing was left rolling on the ground awkwardly, his clothes tattered and torn in many places. Luckily, he was still alive, and even more, there wasn’t even any signs of blood on him.

Although he ended up unharmed, Zhou Weiqing broke up in cold sweat. He thought to himself: Looks like it isn’t a good idea to use up Blink so easily… Perhaps it’ll be better to conserve it for times like that. Almost died there! Indeed, he had almost perished right there and then. In the last moment, he had summoned his Legendary Hammers, and the Protective Shield of the God Tier Consolidated Equipment had saved his life. He had then released them just before the tornado ended.

It was only because of the God Tier Protective Shield that he survived, and luckily he kept his Hammers in time, and hidden in the black tornado, no one spotted it, or suspected it. After all, Zhou Weiqing also had the Darkness Attribute, and no one knew if he had some other way to deal with it.

Managing to kill Qing Qian with a single arrow had deﬁnitely shocked the entire audience. No one had expected that in this 2v2 ﬁght with 3 Five-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Masters, the one who made the critical difference was not one of them, but the ‘weakest’ one of only three Jewels, Zhou Weiqing!

In truth, since the ﬁrst ﬁght when he sent out Ye Paopao with the plan, Zhou Weiqing had been scheming against this 2nd strongest member of the Bai Da Battle Team.

Without question, Qing Qian’s cultivation level, control and combat strength was a lot stronger than their previous opponent from the Mi’Ou Battle Team, Jiang Fei, who also had the same Darkness Attribute. Despite that, although Zhou Weiqing did not know before-hand that she was also of the Darkness Attribute, he had already been scheming against the ‘2nd’ member of the Bai Da Battle Team from the start.

Ye Paopao’s role was simple, yet critical – to drain her of as much Heavenly Energy as possible. Zhou Weiqing then made use of every possible method to anger her. Finally, the true critical key to success was not the ten star rated Silver Emperor Wing Slash, but the Twisting Bowstring Archery Skill! Indeed, it was the combination of the Twisting Bowstring Archery Skill and the Overlord Bow’s explosive effect that managed to break through Qing Qian’s powerful ﬁve-Jeweled level protective Heavenly Energy, allowing the Silver Emperor Wing Slash to do its deadly work.

Three days of tempering and comprehension allowed Zhou Weiqing to gain a masterful control over the Silver Emperor Wing Slash. Without any protection from Heavenly Energy or equipment, having its way in an unprotected body, even a ﬁve Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master would not be able to survive. As Qing Qian crumpled to the ground, she did not seem to be heavily injured with just her outward appearance, but in truth, her entire innards had been destroyed.

However, the difference between Five Jewels and Three Jewels was indeed huge; even with all his planning and scheming, with Qing Qian underestimating him, Zhou Weiqing still almost died to Qing Qian’s ﬁnal blow. That was still under the fact that he had been in control of the ﬁght, and she had not been able to unleash her strongest power yet.

Zhou Weiqing sat on the ground, panting with deep breaths. There was no happiness or pride in his eyes, just a grim resolution. In his mind, he was saying: My Future Father-In- Law, wait and see. I will deﬁnitely prove my worth to you with my deeds and power. I will deﬁnitely be able to protect Bing’er!

The ﬁght was not over. Qing Qian’s death had caused Lang Xie to go berserk, dealing out a ﬂurry of blows with all his might, glowing green as he was boosted by his Wind Attribute. Alas, Lin TianAo had switched back from offense to defense once more, standing like an immovable mountain, an ultimate defense that seemed insurmountable.

Originally, Lang Xie was very slightly inferior to Lin TianAo, and on top of that he had been inﬂicted with Zhou Weiqing’s Curse of Doom. Even in his berserked state, he might seem to be in the advantage, but in truth, his Heavenly Energy was being drained at a much faster rate than Lin TianAo. That was not even considering Zhou Weiqing who could recover and join in at any time. Any audience member could easily tell that the Fei Li Battle Team was already in a huge advantage in this 2v2 ﬁght.. Zhou Weiqing had almost depleted more than sixty percent of all his Heavenly Energy in that ﬂurry of skills he had used; mostly because he had used so many in such a short period of time, greatly increasing the drain on him.

However, he was not in a rush, slowly standing up and stretching himself, before walking to Qing Qian’s dead body. With a lift of his leg, her body was sent ﬂying in a gentle arc to the Bai Da Battle Team’s Rest House, as he said seemingly to himself: “Sigh… I was so careless… how could she die like this! How could she be so frail? Sigh, why is her body so soft, could it be her bones are all shattered?”

If Lang Xie recovered his senses, the sensible thing to do would be to quickly jump down and surrender, to take this loss and try to reverse the situation in the later 1v1 ﬁghts.

Alas, Zhou Weiqing’s grasp and understanding of human nature was not to be underestimated. After all, the majority of Mu En’s teaching to him had been how to read people and to see weaknesses; perhaps more than even archery!

Earlier, when Qing Qian had been disadvantaged by Zhou Weiqing’s attacks, Lang Xie’s behavior had been so intense. With that, Zhou Weiqing immediately judged that the relation between the two was more than just ordinary teammates. This was further afﬁrmed when Lang Xie went berserk after being Qing Qian had been killed. What he was doing now was to further enrage Lang Xie, to prevent him from recovering his senses and making the right decisions.

Hearing Zhou Weiqing’s words, Lang Xie’s face turned red, and all of a sudden, he spat out a mouthful of blood, forming a blood arrow wrapped with Wind Attribute Heavenly Energy towards Zhou Weiqing. He was not afraid of expending his own life blood to kill Zhou Weiqing, to take revenge for Qing Qian.

Alas for him, when Zhou Weiqing spoke those words, he had already been prepared for any reaction. Faced with the sudden attack from Lang Xie, his body vanished silently. Indeed, his Blink Skill’s cooldown had recovered.

The Blood Arrow was not able to lock onto Zhou Weiqing, and it ﬂew off into the distance. As it left the stage, the judge quickly lifted up his hand, blocking it with a quick shield of energy, preventing it from ﬂying into the audience and hurting anyone else accidentally.

With Lin TianAo’s power and combat experience, when Lang Xie sent an attack towards Zhou Weiqing suddenly, he quickly seized the opportunity. In a charge, he closed in, his Heavy Shield smashing directly into the spiked mace in an angle, causing him to be knocked back. At that point, Lin TianAo showed the world why his Assembly Shield Set was called ‘offense and defense in one’.

As the huge shield struck downwards, it was used like an immense axe chopping downwards.

Stumbling backwards, Lang Xie was out of position and balance, and had no choice but to use his spiked mace to block the attack once more. Another loud crash as they clashed, and Lang Xie fell back once more. However, this time, right as he was moving back, a silent yellow light appeared abruptly behind him, blocking his stumbling body. At the same time, the Heavy Shield in Lin TianAo’s hands suddenly disassembled into ﬁve shields, all striking savagely towards Lang Xie like a meatgrinder.

Blocking Lang Xie’s back was Lin TianAo’s ultimate skill, his Illusory Shield, which held a ﬁfth of his entire defensive power. It was sufﬁcient to keep Lang Xie from falling back, keeping him in range of the surprise attack, and more importantly, disrupting his rhythm. The ﬁve disassembled shields smashed down like ﬁve secret weapons from different angles. Facing the threat of death, Lang Xie’s latent potential burst forth, the spiked mace in his hands whirling like a dance of death, attempting to block all of the attacks.

Right at that moment, he suddenly felt his body tighten for a split second, slowing him down. Unfortunately for him, in that moment of life of death, that split second was like an eternity. *Clang* *Clang* *Clang*. Three loud clashes rang out as three of the shields were knocked away by the spiked mace. Alas, that moment of stiffness had done its job, and Lang Xie was unable to dodge or parry the last two shields. With a sickening thud, his right arm which had been holding his spiked mace was chopped off from the shoulder by one of the shields. As for the other shield, it slammed savagely into his belly. Although he had a powerful Heavenly Energy shield, Lin TianAo’s cultivation was equal or slightly higher than his, and the sharp edge of the shield almost cut him into two.

The ﬁve shields ﬂew back together, consolidating into the single huge tower shield once more. Once again, Lin TianAo activated his Charge Skill, slamming into the heavily injured Lang Xie, causing him to ﬂy back from the impact.

An arrow ﬂew in right into the ﬂying body, sinking directly into the wounded belly of Lang Xie with a huge explosion. Finally, Lang Xie’s wounded body was split into two from that explosion, and he landed below the stage, on the verge of death. When Lang Xie fell down onto the ﬂoor with a loud thud, the entire Plaza fell silent.

From the start of the Heavenly Jewel Tournament, there had been no deaths. Today, in this horrifying match, three people had died in succession, and in such terrible ways. This was almost a record in the history of the entire Heavenly Jewel Tournament, especially for it to be in such a one-sided way.

Lang Xie’s ﬁnal death had been due to Zhou Weiqing this time. When Lin TianAo had attacked ferociously and suddenly, Zhou Weiqing had lifted up his left hand, and a green light had fallen upon Lang Xie. That was also what caused the momentary pause in him.

Naturally, that was Zhou Weiqing’s Fetters of Wind. Without question, with his cultivation level, it wasn’t even able to Control or Lock Lang Xie in place at all. However, slowing him for that split second was all it took, and it was the difference between life and death for Lang Xie. Of course, that ﬁnal explosion was also an arrow from the Overlord Bow…

This time, the rest of the members of the Bai Da Battle Team did not react at all; they were all just too stunned. None of them would have ever dreamed in their worst nightmares that their leader and vice leader would perish on the stage. At that moment, their battle spirits were almost broken.

Lin TianAo kept his Assembly Set Shield, turning and walking to Zhou Weiqing. Patting him on the shoulder, he said with a bright light in his eyes: “Well done.”

Zhou Weiqing nodded to him quietly. It was not a good feeling to kill someone, but this was a matter of an enmity between empires; it was kill or be killed. Once again, he also felt the truth of Tang Xian’s words to him so many years ago. In any ﬁght, Control Skills were just so critically important, especially in team ﬁghts!

In terms of raw strength and power, both he and Lin TianAo added together was deﬁnitely lesser than Lang Xie and Qing Qian, no matter how drained she was. However, it was because of all his powerful support and Control skills that had allowed him to control the rhythm and path of the entire ﬁght, allowing them to snatch victory in such a crushing fashion.

Mu En had once told Zhou Weiqing. The most formidable thing about a person was not his Heavenly Energy, Skills, Physical Strength, or even killing intent, but his intelligence. Even an ordinary human without any powers would be able to kill a Heavenly King Jewel Master with a cunning plan, however unlikely.

This was undoubtedly the most exciting match of the entire Tournament thus far, but none of the audience was able to cheer at all. After all, they were ordinary citizens, and none of them had witnessed death ﬁrst-hand before. Although there was some considerable distance to the stage, they were still able to feel the deathly awful atmosphere.

Finally, a voice broke the silence as the judge announced the Fei Li Battle Team’s victory. “2v2 Match, Fei Li Empire victory…”

Both Lin TianAo and Zhou Weiqing jumped down, welcomed by the warm embraces of their excited teammates.

Drunken Bao laughed out loud: “Boss, Weiqing, from now on, you are the heroes of the empire! This is too great, to be able to kill off even Lang Xie… Hahahaha!”

After a moment of silence, the judge ﬁnally said solemnly: “Fourth match, 1v1, both sides, please send your representative member. The current score is 2 to 1, with Fei Li Battle Team leading.” The scenario was following Zhou Weiqing’s plan, as it was down to match point for the Fei Li Battle Team.

The entire Fei Li team looked to Zhou Weiqing once more, and he nodded to them assuringly before stepping up onto the stage once more.

Indeed, Zhou Weiqing had expended a huge amount of Heavenly Energy, but if anyone were to underestimate him again because of that, it would be a deadly mistake. After all, no one truly knew how fast the recovery rate of his Heavenly Energy was. Under the full draw of all thirteen energy whirlpools at his Death Acupuncture Points, Zhou Weiqing barely took half an hour to recover from fully depleted to full energy. In fact, that was probably the scariest thing about his combat prowess. On the mass battleﬁeld, a Heavenly Jewel Master like him with such a recovery rate was perhaps even scarier than a six-Jeweled Zong Stage Heavenly Jewel Master!

The Immortal Deity Technique had caused Zhou Weiqing much pain and suffering over these last few years, but as he entered the second section and beyond, Zhou Weiqing ﬁnally understood the meaning of ‘No pain no gain’. Indeed, along with the immense suffering and many near-death experiences came many impressive beneﬁts as well. Seeing Zhou Weiqing ascend the stage once more, the eyes of all the entire Bai Da Battle Team turned bloodshot. Without their leaders to restrain them, all of them were arguing and striving to be the one to charge over and kill him!

However, at that point, Lang Xie suddenly raised his hand. He had been brought to their Rest House, on his last gasp of breath, and he grabbed one of the member’s sleeves.

Although he had been cut nearly into two, with his physique, although there was no saving him, he was still managed to hold onto life by a thread for a short time.

“Leader… you…” The other Bai Da Team Members looked at the dying Lang Xie, their bodies quivering.

Lang Xie ﬁnally spoke, his voice hoarse and low as he said weakly but ﬁrmly: “Surrender. I order you all to surrender. We cannot afford any more losses. We must take revenge, but not like this; do not fall into their trap… I do not want any of you to die. You are all the cream of the crop, the most talented of this generation of our Empire. One day, you will stand on the battleﬁeld and take revenge for us…” As he gasped out these last words, the last vestiges of life ﬁnally left his eyes, his head lolling down as he breathed his last breath.

It was a struggle, but the Bai Da Battle Team members did not disobey Lang Xie’s last order and surrendered the match. However, standing on the stage, Zhou Weiqing could clearly see the sheer hatred their bloodshot eyes as they glared at him, as they slowly left the Plaza with the three corpses of their fallen comrades.

Zhou Weiqing’s eyes were calm. He was not pleased with death, nor was he used to it. However, he knew that such a hatred between empires was not so easily resolved, and there was no right or wrong, and there was only the ﬁght between two sides.

With this victory over the Bai Da Battle Team, this also almost guaranteed that the Fei Li Empire was now in the top eight. Of course, they still had ﬁghts ahead, but not counting the seeded team, the Bai Da Battle Team had already been the toughest opponent in the third group of theirs. Originally, some of the other empires had been hoping that the two large empires would take each other down, allowing them to steal a second place with some luck. Alas, this tiny hope had been dashed with this crushing victory by the Fei Li Battle Team. The Tournament continued, but after that bloody ﬁght, the rest of the ﬁghts seemed to pale in comparison.

Furthermore, regarding the Fei Li Battle Team, the impression of them had risen tremendously, and even those who had not looked upon them favourably as winners were now reconsidering their stance. Undoubtedly, Zhou Weiqing had shown himself in an extraordinary light throughout the last ﬁght, as did Lin TianAo. Without Lin TianAo’s powerful and stable strength as a cornerstone rock in a turbulent stream, no matter how many all of Zhou Weiqing’s plans and Control Skills, they would not have been able to beat Lang Xie and Qing Qian, let alone kill them.

The Fei Li Battle Team were still gathered in their Rest House as the rest of the teams slowly left to have their lunch. They were all still too excited, seated round chatting, and Ye Paopao gave Zhou Weiqing a quick punch. “Well done, you little rascal, you have indeed helped me to take revenge. I do not mind taking the scolding after all! Haha! The only thing I’m worried now is… now that the audience has seen such a bloody scene, will they be able to still eat lunch?”

Lin TianAo smiled, then said seriously: “Alright, everyone, I have something to discuss with you after today’s ﬁght. In terms of command, I am a steady and stable leader, but perhaps too much so. Weiqing’s command is extremely creative, a powerful and unconstrained style like heavenly steed soaring across the skies. I would like to let Weiqing be in charge of commanding us in the future ﬁghts. Does anyone object?”

In terms of Zhou Weiqing’s command and directions, judgement, and even power, it had earned his comrades approval and respect. That was especially so after that 2v2 match, even the Five-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Masters like Xiao Yan and Drunken Bao were a little afraid after seeing it. They were clear that even if they were the ones in Lang Xie and Qing Qian’s place, they would not do any better!

The entire team agreed with Lin TianAo’s suggestion, and Zhou Weiqing’s status in the team rose sharply, ofﬁcially taking his place as a mainstay second only to Lin TianAo.

Zhou Weiqing stretched lazily; after resting for this period of time, his Heavenly Energy was almost fully recovered. “Let’s head back, there isn’t much else for us to watch. Our next opponent, the Ka’Ou Battle Team is relatively easy, and we should take the next few days to rest up and bring ourselves to tip top condition in preparation for that ﬁght.”

As everyone stood up to go, Drunken Bao said: “Weiqing, you are truly the most reckless fellow I have ever seen, yet not foolhardy. Boss was right indeed, your creative and unconstrained strategies are deﬁnitely surprising, to both us and our enemies, and I deﬁnitely approve. However, there is one VERY important thing I have to say… you better let me ﬁght the next round, I’m itching to get on the stage!”

Zhou Weiqing laughed heartily and said: “Haha, even if you do not want to go, I will also shove you up there. You and Xiao Yan are our secret weapons of our Battle Team!” In this, he was not exaggerating. Both Drunken Bao and Xiao Yan were Five- Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Masters, yet they had not even ascended the stage once. In most other teams, they would perhaps be the top ﬁghters or mainstay of the team! Although their combat strength was slightly weaker as compared to Lin TianAo, but they were undoubtedly outstanding geniuses to be able to reach such a level at their age. After all, Drunken Bao was only twenty seven years old, and Xiao Yan even younger at twenty six! Both were younger than Lin TianAo.

As the Fei Li Battle Team returned to their inn, Zhou Weiqing took a big meal and once again gathered up a container of fresh water, heading back to his room in preparation to start his tempering training again. Just as he was about to close the door, Lin TianAo came up to him. “Weiqing, I need to talk to you…” Lin TianAo said hesitatingly.

Zhou Weiqing quickly invited him in. Although Lin TianAo had lost the bet to him and was now his Follower, Zhou Weiqing held much respect and approval for him.

Chapter 82 Evolution! Demonic Change or Zhou Weiqing?

Lin TianAo’s character was like his skills, stable, steady and consistent. Zhou Weiqing knew that his own character was rather contrasting to that, much more radical. That had its advantages, but also its disadvantages as well. Someone like him would beneﬁt greatly from having someone stable like Lin TianAo around as his companion, with both complementing each other to amplify each other and allow them to display their talents to the maximum.

Both Lin TianAo and Zhou Weiqing were direct speakers, and he did not try to beat around the bush.

“Weiqing, is there something wrong with Lady Bing’er? Did something happen?”

Hearing Lin TianAo’s question, Zhou Weiqing couldn’t help but be surprised: “How did you know?”

Lin TianAo furrowed his brow, saying: “Since we left the Fei Li City, although you have trained, you were never that diligent. Yet, these few days, you have been going through closed door training non-stop, not eating and drinking for several days. Although we might not have been together for long, I think I do understand your character pretty well. Added to the fact that Lady Bing’er has gone missing, besides the fact that something has gone wrong, I cannot think of another reason why you would suddenly become so diligent.”

“Weiqing, no matter as your Follower, your leader, or your friend, since something has happened to Lady Bing’er, why did you not tell us all? The Heavenly Jewel Tournament might be important, but both you are Lady Bing’er are our companions. If she is in trouble, we will deﬁnitely help as best we can. In fact, if we didn’t bump into that Shangguan Xue’er who looks exactly like her, I would almost have thought you came up with that story of her being related to the Heaven’s Expanse Palace.

Zhou Weiqing gave a bitter smile and said: “It’s not that I do not want to say, but in truth no one else can help in this matter, and I can only depend on my own strength. To be honest, up to now, I still cannot believe what happened, it feels so unreal. She really does come from the Heaven’s Expanse Palace, and is part of the triplet sisters. The problem is, her father is called Shangguan Tianyue, and he is the Second Palace Master of the Heaven’s Expanse Palace, at least at the Heavenly King Stage or perhaps even higher.” “You heard it for yourself that day when Shangguan Xue’er came looking for me, unless I can defeat her, I can never be together with Bing’er. That Shangguan Xue’er is possibly the heir to the entire Heaven’s Expanse Palace, and she already has such a powerful cultivation level at Seven Jewels, possibly also with the Alexandrite Cat’s Eye, and with God Tier Legendary Sets. To defeat her… how could it possibly be an easy task? I am only two, almost three, years younger than her… Every time I’m improving… so is she as well…”

Lin TianAo gave a faint smile and said: “Weiqing, you should not belittle yourself like that. In truth, I have felt that in terms of talent, you have the most potential out of anyone I have ever seen or heard of in my life. Even comparing with the ﬁve Great Saint Lands, I am certain that no one is stronger in that respect. Do not forget that we do not come from those Great Saint Lands, perhaps not even from large Heavenly Jewel Master clans. Those from direct lineage in the Great Saint Lands like Shangguan Xue’er, from a very young age, powerful Jewel Masters will help them cleanse their marrow, meridians and body, giving them a huge advantage. From the age of three, they are taught how to cultivate with the top arts, and they usually Awaken their Heavenly Jewels by the age of six to seven.”

“With such a head start, in addition to various secret medicines, top arts, their speed of cultivation is naturally extremely fast. Furthermore, they do not have to worry about Skill Storing, Consolidated Equipment, as that will be prepared by their elders. With even their cultivation route and direction planned for them, how could they not be much faster than any ordinary Heavenly Jewel Masters. That’s the reason why they

are at such a high level of six, seven Jewels even below twenty

years old. Both that Little Witch and Shangguan Xue’er are similar in that.”

“Yet, for us, it is very different. We are from ordinary backgrounds, almost commoners in comparison. Our Heavenly Jewel Awakening has an element of luck within, and to be able to start cultivating at ten years old is already considered very good. While cultivating, we still have to worry about Skill Storing and Consolidating Equipment; at the same time, our training arts are likely lower level than theirs. It can be said that, for us to reach our current state, it was through much struggle, blood and sweat that we have earned on our own.”

“You are not even seventeen years old this year, and you have already reached a three-Jeweled cultivation level. To an ordinary Heavenly Jewel Master without any powerful background, that is already considered unbelievable. I deﬁnitely believe that when you reach my age, your power will deﬁnitely be far above mine.” “Our way of cultivation is deﬁnitely a lot slower when compared to those privileged, but it isn’t without its beneﬁts. After all, we have gone through much suffering and toil, working hard to gain our power. Sometimes, the process is equally important as the result, and we have a stronger foundation due to that; treasuring every Skill and Consolidated Equipment we have. At the same time, our battle experience and combat skill is usually more varied and abundant.”

“Simply put, if I met any member of a privileged Clan, as long as our cultivation level isn’t too far apart and he doesn’t have more than two Attributes, I have the conﬁdence in beating him. Fighting spirit and willpower isn’t something so easy to foster, not even with the best training conditions.”

“Furthermore, I have noticed that your cultivation speed is truly unbelievably quick. It has barely been long since your last level up, and yet your Heavenly Energy is close to reaching the next level again. Added to that, you have that unheard of Elemental Jewel, an Alexandrite Cat’s Eye Jewel with THAT many attributes… I truly believe that you will be able to defeat Shangguan Xue’er in the near future… perhaps even being able to defeat her with a lower cultivation level.”

Speaking up to that point, Lin TianAo ﬁnally paused. The strong conﬁdence in his words deﬁnitely inﬂuenced Zhou Weiqing. Although he had not shown it, he had been feeling despondent, and lacking in conﬁdence, but Lin TianAo’s words had sparked a ﬁre within him once more. Once again, Zhou Weiqing felt a sense of joy that he had been so lucky to have him as a Follower.

Looking seriously at Zhou Weiqing, Lin TianAo continued: “However, Weiqing, you must remember that everything needs to be done step by step in the proper process. This is especially so for cultivation, you must not rush into things and be too hasty, or you might end up in trouble with a cultivation deviation. In that case, everything you have worked so hard for will go up in smoke just like that, and you will never ever see your Bing’er again. Do you understand?”

Zhou Weiqing understood clearly in his heart that Lin TianAo was telling him this because he was afraid that he would be overdoing the training and get into trouble, and wanted to remind him.

He was an only child in his family, and in that moment, looking at Lin TianAo, Zhou Weiqing felt as though he was looking at an older brother. Nodding his head repeatedly, he agreed. Seeing that his words had taken effect, Lin TianAo stood up, patting Zhou Weiqing’s shoulder and saying: “You are an intelligent person, and very spirited and creative. I dare say you are the most talented person. This is not some mindless praise or ﬂattery. I know I do not need to say more, you should understand what I mean. Cultivation and training is extremely important, but the process is very important. Do not be reckless.”

“Weiqing, work hard, I am rooting for you. You are born with the inner charisma of a leader, and with your strategies and charisma, you are good at inﬂuencing the people around you. Even I am no exception. If your plan for this Heavenly Jewel Tournament works out as per your expectations, and we actually succeed, then when we return, you will deﬁnitely have raised a whole new level in many different ways. In the future, when you graduate from the Fei Li Military Academy, you will deﬁnitely become a great leader and general, and yield brilliant results in the military ﬁeld.”

After saying all that, Lin TianAo patted Zhou Weiqing hard on the shoulder once more before leaving the room.

After closing the door, Zhou Weiqing was not able to calm down for a while. Suddenly, he muttered to himself: “Tian’er, thank you. If not for your reassurance that time, I would have missed on the opportunity to gain Bro Lin as a Follower.”

Fat Cat, who was sleeping on the bed, twitched a little at that, but did not move any further.

A dim light ﬂashed in Zhou Weiqing’s eyes as he returned to the bed to begin his cultivation.

He totally understood Lin TianAo’s words. They were to not just encourage him, but also to warn him. However, Zhou Weiqing had not told Lin TianAo what he had actually been training at. After all, his method of three thousand tempering was just too astonishing in the world. The Immortal Deity Technique could be said to be one of his greatest secrets, and he would not easily speak of it even amongst those close to him.

The Three Thousand Tempering training was just the training and tempering of the Skills, and the worst that could happen was for his physique to be overdrained, but it was not an actual cultivation of Heavenly Energy. Only when actually cultivating Heavenly Energy would there be a chance of cultivation deviation. However, his Immortal Deity Technique was really unique in that sense. It was an extremely dangerous, almost deadly technique, but its beneﬁt was that danger was only during the breakthrough of his Death Acupuncture Points. In terms of normal cultivation, there was only beneﬁts and was exempt from the normal dangers of cultivation.

A black light slowly ﬂashed out in the room. This time, Zhou Weiqing was tempering his Touch of Darkness Skill.

After the many ﬁghts he had, the more he realised how important and useful Control Skills were in ﬁghts, not just individual but even more so in teams. It was because of his many Control Skills that he had been able to stem the tide and save the day many a time, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat even when at a disadvantage against stronger opponents.

Without question, the Touch of Darkness was far from being the strongest of his Stored Skills, or even his Control Skills. However, it was one of the more useful ones with various uses. Most importantly, it was able to improve his senses, and also with the additional beneﬁt of being able to affect one or multiple targets with its many tentacles. As such, its potential was extremely great, and perhaps more so than most other Control Skills. As such, Zhou Weiqing had chosen to temper it, as it would help increase his combat strength the most in the shortest time. With his two previous experiences under his belt, Zhou Weiqing quickly fell into a rhythm with tempering the Touch of Darkness. Furthermore, this Touch of Darkness was different from his previous two Skills, as it lasted a much longer time. This also allowed him more opportunity to feel and understand it. Of course, it also meant he would be casting less of them in succession in the same amount of time.

Besides the state of fatigue it left him in, Zhou Weiqing was almost in love with this three thousand tempering technique. Not only did it allow him to temper and strengthen a Skill, understand and comprehend the profound mysteries of his Attributes, it also sped up his Heavenly Energy Cultivation speed! What could be more suitable for him!?

He had only gone through the three thousand tempering technique twice in the last 6-7 days, and already Zhou Weiqing felt as if his Heavenly Energy had improved more than his previous twenty days of cultivation. Given sufﬁcient time, he expected that he might even be able to improve a level of Heavenly Energy every month within the Heavenly Shen Energy stage. That was also one reason why he was so enamoured with cultivation currently. One thing Lin TianAo said was deﬁnitely true. If Zhou Weiqing was given the time, and he actually worked diligently in training and cultivation, he would deﬁnitely shock the world.

As the black light ﬂashed continuously in the room, the Touch of Darkness was released. The room was not large, and as it spread out from Zhou Weiqing’s body, it reached into every corner of the entire room.

Zhou Weiqing started to play around with it, making use of his mental control and spirit to make the Touch of Darkness move around and do various things. At the same time, he experimented with its stability, strength, toughness and ﬂexibility.

In doing so, Zhou Weiqing started to feel the difference between the Darkness Attribute and the Spatial or Wind Attributes.

Spatial Attribute Skills required an instantaneous release of power, that was so even for the Spatial Rend. Although it could last three seconds, but the key to it succeeded was that instant of power on release.

As for the Darkness Attribute, it was rather different. When the Touch of Darkness was released, it could be said to be just the beginning, and continued control over it was the most important.

Just the ﬁrst try of his caused Zhou Weiqing to feel some strain, as there was just too many tentacles to control. To try and control each and every one of them in doing something different not only required him to have an incredible amount of multitasking, calculating and also powerful control over the skill, Heavenly Energy and the Darkness Attribute.

It was almost as if his entire brain had to be split into a dozen parts, and instantly Zhou Weiqing felt the true difﬁculty of this Skill. Although this level of control was not an additional drain on his Heavenly Energy, it was deﬁnitely a huge drain on his spirit and consciousness.

As the ﬁrst Touch of Darkness Skill ended, Zhou Weiqing did not rush into casting it again. Instead, he sat down recollecting the entire process he had gone through, the feelings and experiences he had just undergone, as well as the feedback that the skill itself returned. The ‘best’ part of the Touch of Darkness could be said to be the increase to all of the user’s senses, and was one of the rarest boosts available, which made it all the more valuable. With this increase in senses, it also made delving into the profound mysteries of the skill easier, allowing him to feel more, understand more and absorb more.

Just like that, Zhou Weiqing began the process of repeatedly casting Touch of Darkness one after the other, experiencing and understanding it as time passed by.

This time, Zhou Weiqing only spent a day before his training ended. He had not even ﬁnished half of the water, but he was forced to conclude the training – because he fainted dead away.

The intricate control of the Touch of Darkness took an unprecedented toll on Zhou Weiqing’s spirit and consciousness. Furthermore, he had never really trained in that department before, and did not know how important it was for controlling Skills. In truth, the majority of Heavenly Jewel Masters did not go out of the way to train their spirit and consciousness; as that would usually slowly improve as their cultivation level improved.

The unique quality about the Darkness Attribute was that it did not take a large toll on his body and physique like other skills, but a much larger toll on his spirit. By the time he had almost totally expended his spirit, his mind lapsed into a deep faint as an automatic protection reaction.

Even Zhou Weiqing himself did not know that he had unknowingly opened up a new path for himself, a unique path of training his spirit and consciousness.

On the surface, a Heavenly Jewel Master’s spirit was not a critical characteristic, and only those with the Divine Attribute would regard it highly. However in truth, for the Spirit Attribute to be actually one of the top three Saint Attributes, how could it be useless?

The stronger a person’s spirit and consciousness, the greater control he would have over everything, Heavenly Energy, Skills and even the body to a certain extent. With the same amount of Heavenly Energy, the same Skill, when used by a Jewel Master with a stronger spirit, it would be a lot more efﬁcient and powerful, perhaps even several times stronger!

When Zhou Weiqing fainted and fell into a deep sleep, Fat Cat which was not far from him suddenly opened her eyes. At that moment, there was a strange, almost astonished look in her eyes. How did he do that? Fat Cat thought to herself. A few days ago, when Zhou Weiqing had ﬁrst gone through the three thousand tempering training, she had already been shocked once. It could be said that the thousand tempering training was very well known by all Heavenly Jewel Masters, yet it was not widely used for a reason. No one had ever done it like Zhou Weiqing, let alone up to three thousand tempering!

Even the members of the ﬁve Great Saint Lands would shake their heads when they talked about the thousand tempering training technique. This training method was just too harmful to one’s vitality, and possibly even life force, and if overdone, could possibly lead to serious and lasting damage. As such, although there were so many beneﬁts to it, the drawbacks were sufﬁcient to dissuade most from making use of such a technique.

Most Heavenly Jewel Masters would rather waste more time in practicing their Skills over a long period of time, with much lower efﬁciency, than to make use of such an extreme method.

A few days ago, when Fat Cat had witnessed Zhou Weiqing use his Spatial Rend Skill one thousand ﬁve hundred times in slightly more than a day, she had been totally shocked to the core. Even more so than Zhou Weiqing, she knew how impossible that was, and the true implications of that. Furthermore, she had been alongside Zhou Weiqing for so long, and she was extremely clear on his cultivation. Instantly, she realised that he had stumbled upon the perfect training method for himself.

The facts had indeed been as she expected. Without even considering the huge beneﬁts from Zhou Weiqing’s improved Spatial Rend and Silver Emperor Wing Slash having a large part to play in his winning of the various ﬁghts, just the dangerless sheer speed of his cultivation of Heavenly Energy would already breathtaking.

Despite that, Fat Cat was once again shocked by Zhou Weiqing. With her keen senses, she could tell that Zhou Weiqing’s spirit was in an unstable ﬂux. She was extremely familiar with such a ﬂux; after all, her main Attribute and training focus was the Spirit Attribute. Without question, when Zhou Weiqing was tempering his Darkness attribute Touch of Darkness Skill, he was actually somehow training his spirit and consciousness at the same time!

Was he some monster, or just an unbelievable genius? That notion was all that Fat Cat could think of. However, even she did not realise that although she knew that the stronger Zhou Weiqing grew, the less control and power she would have over him, she did not have any killing intent, but rather a strange happiness. At that point, she somehow forgot about all the times she had been ‘bullied’ by Zhou Weiqing.

After an unknown period of time, Zhou Weiqing was slowly aroused from his deep sleep by a strange feeling.

The ﬁrst sensation he had was that of cold; his entire body feeling icy cold, and one which seemed to spread from inside. It was as if his entire body was a huge block of ice, and the cold was continuously being produced from within and spreading throughout and out from his skin.

Such a cold was deﬁnitely not something that came from an external source. The instant that Zhou Weiqing woke, he started shivering uncontrollably, even his teeth were chattering loudly.

What is happening? What is going on with me? Zhou Weiqing was surprised, and as he roused fully to his senses, he realised that he had lost control of his body.

Turning his senses inward to examine himself, Zhou Weiqing realised that he couldn’t actually sense any vestiges of Heavenly Energy. At that point, his heart sank in an icy feeling of doom, which someone left him even colder than before. Cultivation Deviation!

This was the only explanation that Zhou Weiqing could think of for the state he was in, although it didn’t make sense at all. As much as he did not want to believe that he could enter cultivation deviation while training, the facts were before him, and he had no other choice but to believe it.

He did not even have the time to to ponder on how he had actually entered cultivation deviation, when the icy cold overwhelmed his thoughts, and he lapsed into a strange mindless state.

His entire body, down to the muscles, innards, meridians, all of it seemed frozen and mashed together, the intense pain was even worse than all the previous times he had felt when breaking through his Death Acupuncture Points; though he had previously thought that was impossible.

With that empty feeling, it was as if the breath was being forced out of his body. The cold battering him, as if trying to turn him into a pile of ice dust.

Zhou Weiqing could almost hear his own bones groaning and creaking, the sound of his own bones made him almost break down. Alas, his mind was still strangely awake, and the pain was so intense, almost like he was struck with his own Curse of Doom’s increased pain senses while being tortured.

When Zhou Weiqing had awoken, Fat Cat had also gotten up.

Her purple eyes were wide opened as they scrutinised Zhou Weiqing, and slowly a look of delight entered them. With a shake of her body, she turned into a three metre huge form.

She did not touch Zhou Weiqing, but the happiness in her eyes grew stronger as she stood there silently, watching the changes in his body.

In Fat Cat’s eyes, Zhou Weiqing had totally turned a bleak grey colour. Indeed, totally grey, even down to his usually black hair, skin, eyes and even nails!

A layer of thick Demonic Aura also extended to every section of his skin, though it was not released outwards. If Fat Cat was not looking upon him with her own eyes, she would not even be able to sense anything untoward from him. If it had been Lin TianAo or any of the other team members here, none of them would be able to recognize what was happening to Zhou Weiqing. Even Little Witch, who was from the Heavenly Demon Sect, one of the Great Saint Lands, would not be able to recognize it. However, Fat Cat was different. With a single look, she immediately knew what Zhou Weiqing was experiencing, as she had just gone through the exact same thing not long ago!

Evolving! He was actually evolving!

Indeed, Fat Cat knew that Zhou Weiqing was evolving, just like a Heavenly Beast.

Although she could not understand how a human like Zhou Weiqing could actually go through such an evolving, she could clearly tell that this would bring a huge beneﬁt to her as well. Just like the previous time when she evolved, Zhou Weiqing had beneﬁted a great deal from her.

The strange thing that left her puzzled was that although Zhou Weiqing was going through the same evolving state, he did not seem to release the same aura which would attract Heavenly Beasts to devour him. Such a circumstance should appear any time a Heavenly Beast evolved, and it was one of the restrictions on Heavenly Beasts growing stronger. Even one as powerful as herself, when she had evolved, she had attracted many Zong Stage Heavenly Beasts, even Little Witch had been attracted by the aura to come and cause trouble!

Yet, Zhou Weiqing did not seem to have the same problem, and the Demonic Aura surrounding his body seemed to block off any external senses, not allowing anything from leaking into the atmosphere. In Fat Cat’s eyes, it only meant one thing

– Zhou Weiqing’s evolving was even stronger than her own.

That was to say, Zhou Weiqing was in a certain way evolving into a higher level species than herself!

That was the thing that truly caused Fat Cat to be so puzzled. After all, as a Divine Heavenly Spirit Tiger, she was at the top of this world’s ‘pyramid’, and could be considered a Godly or Divine Beast, totally comparable or perhaps beyond humans. After all, they could reach the Heavenly God Stage! Yet, standing at the top of the pyramid, she still sensed Zhou Weiqing’s evolving was of a higher level than her… how could that be possible?

Puzzled, Fat Cat was left staring and unable to react for a moment. The only thing she was sure of meow was that currently Zhou Weiqing was giving off a very dangerous feeling, a feeling that a lower ranked Heavenly Beast felt from a Higher ranked Heavenly Beast… Perhaps even clearer than that.

When speaking of the rank here, it was not the cultivation level but rather the bloodlines. For example, Divine Beasts like the Divine Heavenly Spirit Tiger which could reach the Heavenly God Stage as compared to the ordinary Heavenly Beasts which could only reach the maximum of Zong Stage.

The look of disbelief in Fat Cat’s eyes grew even stronger, as she muttered to herself. “No, that’s impossible. How can he be a higher ranked Heavenly Beast than myself?! He is clearly a human! Furthermore, in this world, there shouldn’t be any Heavenly Beasts with a higher rank!”

Alas, no matter how much she told herself that, she could not change the facts happening right in front of her. As the grey light extended throughout Zhou Weiqing’s body, his clothes slowly dissolved. Luckily, he had fallen onto the ground when he fainted, otherwise the bed sheets and mattress would probably have been dissolved by him as well.

As the grey light grew stronger and thicker, from an inch to two, then three. By the time two hours had passed, there was barely a trace of spirit remaining in Zhou Weiqing’s eyes, and his entire body was frozen and numb like a stiff log, and the grey light surrounding him was almost one chi thick.

Fat Cat could clearly sense that she would gain much from Zhou Weiqing’s evolving. However, at this point, she dared not approach. Even with her cultivation level and powerful bloodlines, she did not know what would happen when she closed in.

As such, she could only wait and see.

After the grey light had extended to about one chi thickness, it stopped extending. The familiar black tiger tattoos then started appearing from below Zhou Weiqing’s skin, starting from his right leg before spreading to every inch of his body. The only difference from the previously was that the ‘King’ word on his forehead was no longer the original black colour, having turned a crystal-like, almost transparent grey.

It was not a deathlike grey, but containing a strange sort of lively spirit. The grey ‘King’ word almost seemed like a unique eye, feeling and sensing everything around.

Zhou Weiqing’s bones were making weird creaking sounds, almost like little explosions. The grey light around him started to undulate in a rhythmic pattern; the greatest change being around both his arms, which were rapidly expanding.

At ﬁrst, Fat Cat could see the blood vessels below the skin of his arms expanding, the skin being forced outward by the pressure within, but slowly they were hidden beneath the bulging muscles.

In a matter of moments, Zhou Weiqing’s arms already expanded to more than double its normal size, the thick black tiger tattoos twisting and turning as if a little boat in the frenzied seas, a power emanating from his arms. Zhou Weiqing’s body also started to move at this point. As the grey light seemed to form an air current lifting him up from the ground slowly, his left leg remaining on the ground while the right leg rose up in a strange arc, almost reaching his own head.

Besides his ‘male pride’ that Fat Cat could see, she was astonished to see that Zhou Weiqing’s entire right leg had turned a pitch black.

The black right leg seemed warped, even his bones mutating as it extended in length by almost half a metre. Next, his right leg seemed to bend into a strange large hook. That instant when the hook formed, the grey light around Zhou Weiqing’s body seemed to have found a point to gather, and like a swarm of bees it converged upon his right leg. At this point, only Zhou Weiqing’s powerful arms were left supporting him on the ground.

As a terrifying power emanated in waves from his body, his hands grew as well, his nails growing two inches as they radiated a powerful black and grey light, thick and strong.

The Demonic Change. Without any question, Zhou Weiqing was currently in the midst of the Demonic Change. Yet, Fat Cat had witnessed his Demonic Change before, and this time it looked totally different.

Suddenly, Fat Cat understood. Currently, it wasn’t just Zhou Weiqing’s body which was evolving; even his Demonic Change was evolving!

What is his cultivation level? Only Three Jewels, yet his Demonic Change is already evolving?! Furthermore, he hasn’t even trained his Demonic Attribute in any way!

Fat Cat suddenly felt as if her brain wasn’t working anymore, going numb. She just felt that she had just seen so many impossible things from Zhou Weiqing, and she wondered if all she knew was even true at all.

As the time passed second after second, and minute after minute, Zhou Weiqing ﬁnally started regaining his consciousness. As the grey light ﬂowed towards his right leg, he ﬁnally felt as if the intense cold around his body was subsiding.

Currently, Zhou Weiqing’s raised right leg was glowing with the unbelievably thick grey light, enveloping it while spinning in a helix pattern, slowly permeating right into his leg. As the unbearable cold left, he was left with an aching and tingling sensation. Zhou Weiqing felt like his entire body, down to the bones, was constantly beset with wave after wave of strange aching pin-and-needles. A little itchy, yet a weird comforting sense. It was like the ﬁrst time he had entered the

Demonic Change, getting help from Shangguan Bing’er, and

having his Heavenly Jewels Awakened and his blocked meridians widened and ‘opened’.

What happened? Didn’t I enter cultivation deviation?

The terror and dread in Zhou Weiqing’s heart slowly faded, replaced eventually by a sense of excitement. He could clearly feel as the numbness and ache diminished, a sense of power was ﬁlling him. That was especially so for his arms, where his large hands were now plunged deep into the tough ﬂoor.

A gentle light shone from Zhou Weiqing’s face, as his eyes opened and lit up in a bright spark. He felt as if the Attribute Wheel in front of his eyes was spinning uncontrollably as it changed from attribute to attribute.

His three Heavenly Jewels were also constantly swapping attribute control – and they were invariably linked indeed. At ﬁrst, the Attribute Wheels were moving too fast, but slowly, they slowed down, and he was able to look at them clearly.

Zhou Weiqing was surprised to see that when the Attribute Wheel turned to the grey zone, his ﬁrst Elemental Jewel seemed to have a claw like symbol, with a round hole in the center of the claw.

Could that mean the Devour Skill?

When a Skill was Stored, it showed on the Attribute Wheel; no matter which attribute the Skill was Stored on, it would appear on the corresponding Wheel of the corresponding Jewel.

For example, for his ﬁrst Elemental Jewel, the Darkness Attribute Skill Stored was his Touch of Darkness Skill. As such, when that attribute wheel moved to the black zone, he was able to see the symbol there, a black octopus with a strange purple border. That was the symbol representing the Touch of Darkness, and each of his other skills also had their own symbol. Before today, only the grey zone was completely unchanged; even the colourless zone of the Time Attribute had a symbol in the First Jewel; a symbol of a whirlpool, representing the Absolute Delay Skill.

However, at this point, the ﬁrst Elemental Jewel’s grey zone, representing the Evil or Demonic Attribute, had actually ﬁnally gone through a change, with the additional claw symbol. What did that mean? Could it be that he could ﬁnally control the Devour Skill?

As he thought up to that point, Zhou Weiqing’s heart started racing. He did not know what star rating that Devour Skill had, but he could clearly remember what had happened the ﬁrst time he had used that skill in the Demonic Change state, forcefully destroying an entire huge pack of Forest Direwolves. More importantly, it had saved his life, and not only that, it had caused his cultivation level to shoot up.

As Zhou Weiqing was both surprised and delighted, he suddenly realised that in the grey area of his second Elemental Jewel, there seemed to be a new symbol as well. That symbol was a round shape, totally grey. When the Attribute Wheel spun to the grey zone, a strange sight occurred. A black light and a blue light seemed to swiftly invade into the zone, mixing with the grey and forming a grey, blue and black three-coloured ball.

What does that mean? Zhou Weiqing was left confused.

From the colours, if they were attributes, the grey represented the Demonic Attribute, the black representing the Darkness Attribute, while the blue representing the Lightning Attribute. All three were attributes he had. Could it be… Gods! Did that mean that this Skill actually required the fusion of three attributes?!

Zhou Weiqing was suddenly gripped by a ﬁery joy as he thought up to that point. At that moment, a name suddenly appeared in his heart… “Dark Demon God Lightning”.

Chapter 83 Challenging the seeded team?

“Dark Demon God Lightning”

Simple words, yet ﬁlled with a tyranny that left a heart ﬂustered. When Zhou Weiqing sensed the name, he instantly knew that his guess was right. His second Elemental Jewel Skill was a fusion skill of Darkness, Demonic and Lightning Attributes!

Just as Zhou Weiqing’s emotions grew more and more excited, as he started daydreaming about the power he got. All of a sudden, his body started trembling, as a burning heat ﬂowed from his right leg towards his entire body, and the sudden pain caused him to grunt and fall onto the ground.

Zhou Weiqing’s Heavenly Jewels appeared around his wrists in their original form, lighting up in succession as the bright lights ﬂashed out. Green, Blue, Silver, Black and Grey, and of course a ‘colourless’ light that couldn’t be seen. The six lights gathered above his head, forming six strange symbols, and the tiger tattoos on his body started gathering speed as they continued in their rhythmic undulations, seeming to form strange symbols as they did so. When Fat Cat saw this, she ﬁnally heaved a sigh of relief. Zhou Weiqing’s current state was the normal state of evolving that she knew so well.

Two lights lit up around Fat Cat as well, purple and gold, and similarly gathering above her head. She took a step forward, coming to Zhou Weiqing’s body, allowing the two symbols of light to meet with the six around Zhou Weiqing’s head. As per what happened during her evolving, the eight lights gathered in a strange formation above them, forming a shield of light enveloping them.

Amongst the eight lights, the purple and gold of Fat Cat, as well as the Grey and Colourless of Zhou Weiqing’s were the brightest, with their symbols the largest as well.

As the shield formed around them, Zhou Weiqing’s body slowly returned to its normal state, the black scorpion hook of his right leg vanishing as his right leg and both arms were restored to their original states, though the tiger tattoos remained on his body, still twisting and undulating.

As compared to Fat Cat’s evolution, Zhou Weiqing’s was much shorter, lasting only 1 day and 1 night. As the light shield vanished, Fat Cat roused ﬁrst. When her eyes opened, a surprised delight appeared in them as she could clearly sense that there had been a marked improvement in her cultivation level. Although it could not match her own evolving, it had already given her more than three months worth of cultivating! However, Fat Cat did not realise that when she looked at Zhou Weiqing, a slight tinge of dependence ﬂashing in her eyes.

After she fully awoke, Fat Cat quickly turned into her small form, and Zhou Weiqing started to wake up as well at that time.

The instant Zhou Weiqing opened his eyes, the six different colours ﬂashed one by one in his eyes, as if bolts of swift lightning. With a shudder, he felt a slight pricking pain all over his skin. Subconsciously, he looked down, only to see that his skin was split apart almost everywhere.

As he moved, the splitting of the skin grew more obvious, but just a surface layer. Zhou Weiqing tried touching it, and at the slightest graze of his ﬁngers, the skin peeled aside, revealing a new layer of skin below.

As compared to his previous skin, the fresh new layer was a few shades darker, a deep bronze ﬁlled with the sheen of health. If one looked closely, they would be able to see a special glow. Also, after further examination, Zhou Weiqing found that his physique was actually taller than before, his muscles and body even more well built, sheer power and strength ﬂooding his body.

The black pearl.

The ﬁrst thing that Zhou Weiqing thought of was the black pearl that had given him everything, Awakened his Heavenly Jewels. Without question, what happened to him earlier deﬁnitely had something to do with the black pearl.

Previously, when Little Witch came looking for him, he hadn’t been very interested in their training method for the Demonic Attribute. That was because of what little he knew of his own Demonic Attribute.

The Demonic Attribute Skill he had was not Stored from any Heavenly Beast, but had appeared on its own. Furthermore, when he had competed with Crow in physical strength, he had vaguely senses that he was close to being able to control the Demonic Change.

In truth, his judgement was accurate. This was indeed the result of his Demonic Change, and him, evolving, thanks to the black pearl. He had even gained another Demonic Attribute Skill, and not an ordinary one from the looks of it. Furthermore, he had gained control over the Devour Skill, and also had quite an impressive improvement to his body, not just in terms of strength, but also toughness and ﬂexibility.

Turning his sense inwards, Zhou Weiqing realised that once again, his Heavenly Energy had reached the peak of its current stage. This time, however, he wasn’t lucky enough to have it break through automatically, if not he could possibly have reached the 14th stage of Heavenly Energy by now, or the 2nd stage of the Heavenly Shen Energy. Still, he had reached the 13th stage not long ago, and he was already at the peak; such speed was already unheard of, it had barely been half a month!

In fact, what Zhou Weiqing did not know was that his evolving was something that would deﬁnitely happen. In fact, it should have happened when he reached the ﬁrst stage of Heavenly Shen Energy. However, at that point, he had not broken through that stage on his own cultivation, but through the evolving of Fat Cat. As such, it had not been sufﬁcient to bring about his own full evolution, though he had still beneﬁted from that of course,.

As Zhou Weiqing’s Heavenly Energy grew, adding to the fact he had being going all out in his training in the last week or so, it all culminated to this point when he had expended all his spirit, especially after the training of the Touch of Darkness; it had been the last spark needed to bring about his evolution. That black pearl, from another world, bringing with it the powers of that powerful beast Dark Demon God Tiger, causing his body to go through a second evolution.

Although there wasn’t a huge increase in Zhou Weiqing’s Heavenly Energy, it was truly the evolution and improvement of his body that was striking. With his current body, both in terms of toughness and strength, it was beyond any ordinary Five-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master. As for the improvement of his Demonic Attribute, Demonic Change, and addition of skills, that would only be a huge boost to his overall combat prowess, bringing it up to a whole new level.

Stretching himself and working out the kinks in his muscles and bones, the ﬁrst thing that Zhou Weiqing did was to take a nice long bath. Although he had not eaten and drank for two days, he did not feel any hunger; the peeling old skin on his body was terribly unbearable though.

Luckily, although his scalp did peel off, all his hair remained, or it might have been a strange sight. After a good long wash, he had ﬁnally removed all the excess old skin, and cleansed, he felt fresh and new again. The most obvious feeling was of course that new strength that coursed through every bit of body, as if every movement he took would cause a ripple in the air.

Looking at himself in the mirror, Zhou Weiqing couldn’t help but say something that he hadn’t said for a long time. “Damn, you’re looking handsome indeed!”

This time, he was not being narcissist, at least not too much. Besides the change in his skin, his aura seemed totally different, his eyes deep and magnetic, his disposition hidden and not like the previous showy feel he once had. He had not even reached seventeen years of age, and it was deﬁnitely unusual for a person of that age to have such an aura. Along with his huge physique, he looked more mature than his actual age.

Returning to his room and putting on a fresh set of clean clothes, only then did Zhou Weiqing feel some hunger. By this time, it was already evening, and when he ran to the dining hall for food, he found the rest of the Fei Li Battle Team having dinner as well.

Without hesitation, Zhou Weiqing sat himself down at the table, and set down to gorging himself, giving the rest of the team a scare at how he wolfed it all down. Lin TianAo examined Zhou Weiqing from top to bottom, revealing a surprised look. He was not the only one; as all the team members seemed to sense something was different about him. After all, they had all been together for a time now, and they were very familiar with Zhou Weiqing. Looking at him, with his hair still damp from his bath, his physique clearly larger, and with a different air about him, how could they not feel strange?

Crow’s eyes lit up, as she said: “Weiqing, why do I feel like you have become more suave?”

Zhou Weiqing did not stop eating, as he said: “Of course I’m suave and handsome, what’s new about that?” Pausing a second, he slid Crow a wary side glance before saying: “Crow, your brother here already belongs to someone, don’t have any designs on me!”

Crow gave a humph and said: “Isn’t it common for men to have wives and concubines? Anyway, you are thinking too much, I also have a ﬁance already.”

Little Four grinned and said: “Heh heh, Weiqing, don’t tell me that your Heavenly Energy cultivation level raised again?” Zhou Weiqing shook his head, still chewing. In a matter of minutes, the entire table of food had been polished off, mostly by him. Lin TianAo had no choice but to order another round of food.

After they had all ﬁnished eating, Zhou Weiqing ﬁnally heaved a sigh of satisfaction, patting his stomach and saying: “Ahhh, that hit the spot.”

Drunken Bao smiled and said: “Weiqing, why are you acting like a hungry ghost? That being said, recently you have been extremely diligent! From your looks, it seems like your efforts have paid off well right?”

Zhou Weiqing nodded, looking towards Crow and saying: “Come on, let’s compete strength again.” After saying that, he extended a hand to her.

Crow started, slightly taken aback, but she subconsciously lifted her hand to his. Her hand was even larger than Zhou Weiqing’s, and as soon as their hands met, she exerted her considerable strength.

In their previous competition of strength, she had not been fully convinced of her loss, feeling like she had not performed well. Furthermore, Zhou Weiqing had previously started with a sudden burst of power, causing her loss. As such, this time, she quickly used her full power from the start, thinking to pay him back in kind this time.

Alas, as soon as she did so, she immediately felt that something was wrong. She felt as if Zhou Weiqing’s palm was ﬁlled with a strangely solid feel. The next moment, a huge power overwhelmed her, and before she could react, she had been lifted up from the ground totally.

This time, Zhou Weiqing’s sleeve on his arm did not burst apart like the previous time. In fact, he did not even seem to be exerting himself, as if it was all a breeze to him.

Releasing his hand, Zhou Weiqing placed Crow back on the ground. The members of the Fei Li Battle Team all stared at each other, shocked to the core. Crow herself had a blank look on her face. This time, she did not even know how she lost. Earlier, she had already used all her might in order to win, but when Zhou Weiqing had exerted strength, she did not even have a chance! Crow couldn’t help but squeeze Zhou Weiqing’s arms, before saying curiously: “Weiqing… Are you really human? Could it be, you’re a long lost member of my Gold Crow Tribe?”

After his competition with Crow, Zhou Weiqing had taken up his cup to drink. Hearing her words, he couldn’t help but spray out the mouthful of water.

“Who’s your long lost tribe member? I really worked extremely hard this time in my closed door cultivation!”

Crow gave another humph, saying: “Don’t give me that, no matter how hard you work, it’s impossible to gain so much strength in such a short period of time. Your current strength is deﬁnitely beyond any ordinary human means… there must be some secret behind it!”

Zhou Weiqing grinned and said: “Heh heh, since you already know it’s a secret, then you shouldn’t ask anymore. Come on, let’s ﬁnish up, I want to go back and continue cultivating. Crow, you need to buck up! It will not be easy to catch back up to my strength!” Crow shook her ﬁst at him, saying: “Don’t be cocky yet! Us Gold Crow Tribe members will continue growing in strength as we mature, and as our Heavenly Energy grows. Before long, I will catch back up to you!”

…

Soon, the three days of rest had ended, and the next ﬁght begun. Perhaps because of the ferocity of the Fei Li Battle Team in the previous round, their fourth round opponents barely put up a token struggle before surrendering, giving them an easy victory. Once again, only Zhou Weiqing and Crow actually fought, with each gaining a 1v1 victory, then easily beating their opponents in the 2v2 match.

In the entire process of the fourth round ﬁghts, when the Ka’Ou Battle Team members looked at Crow and Zhou Weiqing during their ﬁghts, they immediately thought of the bloody scene of the Bai Da Battle Team and the sickening deaths. Originally, they were already weaker than the two young combatants, and with fear in their hearts, how could they possibly have a chance.

As such, the Fei Li Team had achieved victory over all four of their matches, and the only remaining match was against the seeded team of their group, the Dan Dun Battle Team. Even if they conceded to them in the next, and ﬁnal, round, they were already guaranteed a top eight spot.

…

Besides the quick ﬁght of the fourth round, Zhou Weiqing continued his diligent training and cultivation. Before the fourth round and his evolving, he had already completed the thousand-tempering training of his Touch of Darkness Skill. Alas, due to the Skill lasting longer than others, and the sheer expenditure of spirit, he had been unable to complete all three- thousand tempering as planned. Still, he had already gained a marked improvement on control and in understanding the profound mysteries.

As for three days of rest after the fourth round, Zhou Weiqing chose another of his most useful skills to go through tempering. At the same time, he also grit his teeth and went through the immense suffering of breaking through the next Death Acupuncture Point, the ﬁrst of his chest Death Acupuncture Points, the ventral septum (DanZhong Acupuncture Point). With that, he had successfully entered the Immortal Deity Technique’s third portion.

The entire Immortal Deity Technique had four main portions, and Zhou Weiqing had already completed the ﬁrst two portions, breaking through the thirteen Death Acupuncture Points depicted in them. As for the last two portions, they were of the chest area Death Acupuncture Points and the head-neck area Death Acupuncture Points respectively, totally another twenty three Death Acupuncture Points. Of the two, the third portion depicted fourteen chest area Death Acupuncture Points, the most of any portion. As such, the third portion was also one of the most important and critical parts of the entire Immortal Deity Technique.

When breaking through the DanZhong Acupuncture Point, Zhou Weiqing realised that the pain was much lesser than previously, perhaps due to his body and physique having evolved. As such, he was better able to withstand the pain, managing to go through the process successfully without going crazy, even without Bing’er’s help this time. The entire process went through much smoother than all the previous times he had broken through Death Acupuncture Points, and in barely two hours, he had successfully broken through and entered the next stage.

As such, Zhou Weiqing had ﬁnally reached the 14th stage of Heavenly Energy, the 2nd level of the Heavenly Shen Energy stage. Once again, he had taken a big step towards reaching his fourth Jewel. However, at the same time, Zhou Weiqing also realised a problem. Although his entire maximum Heavenly Energy had increased drastically with the breakthrough of the Death Acupuncture Point, but his recovery rate and training speed did not improve any further, or perhaps only a very minimal, almost unnoticeable increase. It seemed like unlike the previous portions, in order to gain the largest beneﬁt on recovery rate, he would have to complete the entire portion,

and have the Death Acupuncture Points completely broken through to form a circulatory ﬂow.

…

Time ﬂew indeed, and it seemed like a blink of an eye and it was already the ﬁnal round of the preliminary heats. After this round, the top eight would get ﬁve days of rest before the quarter ﬁnals begun. Once the top four had been selected out of the quarter ﬁnals, the semi ﬁnals would be held on the Heavenly Jewel Island, and the top four would have the honour of entering it. Of course, what happened there was only known to the top four teams.

With the tournament having proceeded to this point, the top eight were actually pretty much determined already. Naturally, the four seeded teams, all of whom had not fought a single match, were guaranteed their spots. As for the rest of the teams, two had already fought their way to the top eight. One was of course the Fei Li Battle Team from group three, but the other was the previously unheard of Kalise Battle Team.

The situation of the Kalise Battle Team was similar to the Fei Li Battle Team, with their last round ﬁght being the seeded team of their group. In their earlier rounds, they had also achieved four victories, and without question they would also be in the top eight.

If everything went normally, according to the tournament ﬁxtures, being the second of their group, the Kalise Team would likely be facing the ﬁrst of group three, the Fei Li Team’s group. That meant they would likely be facing the seeded team of that group, Dan Dun Battle Team.

As the ﬁnal round of the preliminary heats, the most popular was naturally still the various betting booths. After all, this was the ﬁnal chance for the citizens and audience to place their bets. This year’s Heavenly Jewel Tournament had indeed let the ZhongTian Empire earn a sizeable income from organising the bets.

The seven members of the Fei Li Battle Team reached the ZhongTian Plaza early. As with the previous rounds, they claimed their winnings ﬁrst. Naturally, they had all won a large amount from the ﬁght with the Bai Da Empire, but their odds against the Ka’Ou Team had dropped drastically, and they had barely gotten much from that last bet.

Even so, after all the four rounds of ﬁghting, Zhou Weiqing’s pocket had been fattened to an impressive million gold coins. The richest was naturally still Ye Paopao, who had amassed a rather terrifying million and three hundred thousand gold coins.

As the employee at the betting booth passed them their gold coin storage cards, he couldn’t help but feel envious, saying jokingly: “You guys sure have earned a lot this year! Are you still betting today? If you all chose to ﬁght, it can be a chance to win big! 1 to 100 odds!”

Of course, his words had been a joke, perhaps even a light hearted jibe. After all, the Fei Li Battle Team’s opponent today was the seeded team, the Dan Dun Battle Team. Without question, the four seeded teams would never throw a ﬁght just to earn some gold coins; not only was it their pride and face, more importantly it was also concerning a chance to enter the Heavenly Jewel Island, which was deﬁnitely critical to all the other Great Saint Lands. Of course, that was also why the ZhongTian Empire dared to set such an insane odds of 1 to 100, to tempt others into placing bets should there be an actual ﬁght. The ﬁve Great Saint Lands did not lack money, and their aim in the Tournament was to enter the Heavenly Jewel Island. For them to lose to any other team not from another Great Saint Lands, it would be a great humiliation.

Hearing the employee’s joke, Zhou Weiqing, who had been standing right in front, suddenly slammed his gold coin storage card down. Smiling, he said: “Alright, I bet everything on ourselves, Fei Li Battle Team victory.”

The employee started, staring at him dazedly for a moment, before he recovered himself. Laughing a little in spite of himself, he said: “Don’t joke around, keep it quickly, that is a million gold coins.”

Zhou Weiqing said seriously: “Who is joking? I am really betting on us to win. We are really ﬁghting today; what you said is right. A 1 to 100 payout rate, our fate lies in our own hands, how can I not bet on myself.”

Taken aback, the employee stuttered in shock: “You… you mean… you are really going to ﬁght the seeded team today?” Most, if not all, teams would not want to ﬁght the seeded teams before the top eight. After all, no one wanted to take too many losses before the quarter ﬁnals.

Zhou Weiqing smiled and nodded, saying: “Yes, we are serious. Please register us.”

Ye Paopao stood beside Zhou Weiqing, saying hesitantly: “Weiqing, you do not need to bet so much. Our chance isn’t that high.”

Zhou Weiqing laughed heartily, saying: “Our imagination is our limit; the more we dare, the more the land will yield. If I win, my million gold coins becomes a hundred million gold coins, haha I wonder if the ZhongTian Empire will feel a heartache if that really happens! Are you all betting?”

Ye Paopao shook his head, saying: “I’ve already earned enough this time, and I shall not want to lose it all… A man content with his lot is a happy man. I will join you in betting ten thousand gold coins just for fun instead.”

The rest of the others placed a similar bet to Ye Paopao, each placing ten thousand on themselves. The only exception was Crow. She was the poorest of the entire team, and even after winning the last four rounds, she had only amassed thirty thousand gold coins. Unhesitatingly, she bet all of it on their team.

Drunken Bao laughed and said: “Sis Crow, why did you follow Weiqing and go crazy? It’s tough for us to earn money, not like that fellow who is a Consolidating Equipment Master!”

Crow shook her head, grinning as she said: “I trust in Weiqing, and also my own vision. If we do not put our backs against the wall, to break the caldrons and sink the boats, how can we win? We must win!”

The employee of the betting booth stared at all the team members like they had gone crazy, or become idiots. Even after he had ﬁnished their registration and they had left, he was still in a daze of disbelief. However, he had already accepted the bets, that was indeed true.

Indeed, for this last round of the preliminary heats, the Fei Li Battle Team had steeled their resolve and made up their minds to ﬁght the Dan Dun Battle Team.

This was also the words that Zhou Weiqing had used to rouse his teammates, when he had been explaining his plan before the ﬁght with the Bai Da Battle Team. At that time, Zhou Weiqing had told his team that his target was not the Bai Da Battle Team, but the Dan Dun Battle Team! He had a few reasons, simple but compelling. First of all, everyone was used to not ﬁghting the seeded teams in the preliminary heats. As such, the Dan Dun Battle Team deﬁnitely would not place much importance on them, instead looking to the other groups and analysing their possible opponents there. Of course, their main focus would still be on the other three seeded teams.

Under such a circumstance, the Dan Dun Battle Team would not be expecting themselves to be challenged by the Fei Li Battle Team, and they might grow careless. As such, by challenging and ﬁghting them now, it would be easier than any other seeded team who already knew they were ﬁghting them. After all, the Fei Li Battle Team had already secured their top eight spot, and did not have anything to lose by ﬁghting them here.

More importantly, amongst the ﬁve Great Saint Lands, besides the Heavenly Demon Sect, the Blood Red Hell was the next weakest. Instead of possibly facing the two strongest teams in the WanShou Battle Team and the ZhongTian Battle Team where their chances were much lower, they might as well pit themselves against the Dan Dun Battle Team now! Another literal translation of a Chinese idiom meaning to put one’s back against the wall to steel their resolve and ensure victory. Basically, it’s the tale of the famous general Xiang Yu, who led his troops to invade a city. After crossing a river, he ordered his troops to destroy their food cauldrons and burn their boats, showing his resolve. With only three days rations, they launched their attack and succeeded As long as they could win this ﬁght, the Fei Li Battle Team would enter the top eight as the top of their group.

In that case, in the quarterﬁnals, they would be facing the second position of their opposing group. In other words, in that critical match to decide the top four teams, they would no longer need to face another seeded team!

With such an analysis, Zhou Weiqing had indeed moved all his companions. It was an extremely risky plan, perhaps almost reckless. Yet, it was undoubtedly their greatest chance to enter the top four. Without question, their chance of beating the Dan Dun Battle Team was much higher than beating any of the other three seeded teams in the quarterﬁnals; even if that chance might only be thirty percent compared to twenty percent, it was still an important chance to them.

As such, it could be said that this was now the team’s most critical battle in their road to the top four. For this, all of them had prepared to the best they could against the Dan Dun Battle Team, and for better or worse, they would make history by clashing up against a seeded team in the preliminary heats. …

The weather today was not very good, with dark clouds gathering in the skies, looking like a storm would break at any moment. However, this did not in any way dampen the excited spirits of the watching audiences. It was still early in the morning and the ZhongTian Plaza was already a sea of people.

It was after all the ﬁnal day of the preliminary heats, and many were excited to have a ﬁnal look at the ﬁghts, and also to place a bet or two. As for this ﬁnal day, there were many different kinds of bets available, from wagers on individual ﬁghts to the top eight lineup, and many more. Of course, no matter what the wager was, it was set up by the ZhongTian government.

To many people, this was also the last chance for them to make a killing in bets.

As such, it was especially crowded today, so much so that they had to open several more betting booths around the city.

… In the Fei Li battle Team Rest House, it was a serious, almost oppressive atmosphere, mixed with both nervousness and excitement as all of them waited for their turn.

All of them were seated except for Zhou Weiqing, and they were all looking towards him at this point.

“Weiqing, arrange our ﬁghting order then.” Lin TianAo said solemnly.

Before today, none of them had asked how Zhou Weiqing would arrange their strategy today. After the Bai Da Battle Team ﬁght, a strong trust in him and grown in them.

Zhou Weiqing nodded his head, saying: “This ﬁght with the Dan Dun Battle Team is absolutely critical for us, since we are taking this huge gamble. To beat them, we will deﬁnitely have to pay a heavy price on each and everyone of us. As such, I will not have any repeated appearances this time; amongst the seven of us, six of us will be ﬁghting today if we have to go through all ﬁve ﬁghts.”

In terms of comparing absolute power of our two teams, it is without question that the Dan Dun Battle Team are a full level ahead of us. In order to defeat them, we must try to surprise them and gain a swift victory before they can react. They will deﬁnitely be taken aback that we are challenging them here, and my prediction is that they will send out an average, or middling, member of their team in order to test the waters for the ﬁrst ﬁght. That will also be their litmus test of our strength. Of course, in my opinion, that is a perfect opportunity to us to seize a ﬁrst win, and we must secure it at all costs. Leader, I leave the ﬁrst ﬁght to you.”

No one had expected that Zhou Weiqing would send out their strongest member, the mainstay and leader of the entire team, Lin TianAo, so early in the ﬁrst round, and all of them looked surprised.

Zhou Weiqing continued solemnly: “Five ﬁghts, three victories, this is a numbers game, and every win is of utmost importance. Using our strongest leader to destroy their relatively weaker member, that will greatly increase our chance of winning the ﬁrst ﬁght. Once we do so, in the second round will react to that loss strongly, and will want to take one back immediately. As such, I estimate they will be sending one of their top two ﬁghters then. Little Four, you will be in charge of the second ﬁght. However, you are not to pit your life just for victory, and more importantly, do not get injured. When we enter the top eight, I will need you for the next round.” Little Four looked around with a bitter smile, saying: “Looks like I am taking over Ye Paopao’s duty of sniping a powerhouse in a strategic loss…”

Zhou Weiqing laughed heartily and said: “It is a sacriﬁce for our ﬁnal victory. In the second round, try not to show too much of your powers. Not only am I conserving you for the next round, I also want to give the Dan Dun Battle Team the impression that besides Leader, we have no other powerhouses.”

Little Four nodded his head, saying: “I understand. Leader will give them a strike to the head, and I’ll numb their senses next.”

Zhou Weiqing nodded. “Exactly that. The third round is the 2v2 match. This is also one that we must deﬁnitely win.”

Hearing that, Drunken Bao couldn’t help but say: “Weiqing, that doesn’t seem right. Since our total power is weaker than theirs, if that is so in a 1v1 ﬁght, the gap will be even more magniﬁed in a 2v2 ﬁght. How can we defeat them in that case?” Zhou Weiqing replied: “I have pondered upon that as well, and in my judgement, similar to how you’d think of that, so will the opponent. With their overall strength higher than ours, and having secured a win in the second round, they should be sending their two weakest team members for the 2v2 match. As for their strongest member, perhaps their leader, it is a normal strategy to leave as a mainstay in the last two matches. As for our team, besides Leader, the next two

strongest members are you and Xiao Yan. In this 2v2 match, I want you both to take it together. You have both studied together in the Heavenly Jewel Academy for so many years, and you are familiar with each other and especially in working together. Furthermore, you have not been seen previously, and they will not have any info on you as well. That ﬁght, I ask that

you both win this at all costs, no matter what it takes, even if

you have to use your Flame of Life once more, you must win this.”

Xiao Yan and Drunken Bao exchanged a look, then nodded earnestly. Previously, they had not fought in any of the ﬁghts, especially the one with the Bai Da Battle Team, and they were now itching to go. After all these days of rest, their bodies were fully recovered and in peak condition. This was ﬁnally time for them to shine.

Zhou Weiqing continued: “If everything goes according to my plan, we should be able to win two out of the ﬁrst three ﬁghts, and be in a position of great strength. In the last two ﬁghts, I am not able to guess for sure which one their leader will take. However, Crow and I will each take one ﬁght. We’ll just have to try our best for this. As long as one of us wins, we will take the entire series.”

After saying all of that, Zhou Weiqing stopped. Lifting his hand and gripping it into a ﬁst, he struck himself on his broad chest, saying: “As all of you know, our chances of winning this is very slight. Even with the surprise factor, all our plans and strategies, it is not going to be easy to take down this powerful opponent. However, at the same time, this is also our greatest chance in entering the top four, and we must put our all into it. Leader, Little Four, Drunken Bao, Xiao Yan, I know this is probably your last chance to enter the Heavenly Jewel Tournament. I trust that you do not want to leave yourself with any regrets.”

That ended his speech, and Zhou Weiqing stuck out his hand suddenly. Lin TianAo and the rest placed their own palms on his, and in that moment, their morale was boosted to the top, as the very blood in their bodies boiled with ﬁghting spirit and excitement.

The team settled down as the judge on the stage announced the ﬁrst ﬁght, and the last day of the Tournament ofﬁcially began. The Fei Li Battle Team Rest House turned deathly quiet, all of them sitting there with their eyes closed, regulating their breathing and Heavenly Energy, meditating to bring their conditions to their best possible state.

The only one who had not been arranged to ﬁght, Ye Paopao, did not do the same. He stood silently at the door of the Rest House, watching the ﬁghts, silently preparing in his own way for the ﬁght to come, to rouse his companions when the time came.

Perhaps because many of the ﬁghts were meaningless by now, many of them proceeded and ended quickly. The ﬁght between the Fei Li Battle Team and Dan Dun Battle Team was the seventh ﬁght of the entire day, but it was only slightly more than two hours before it reached their turn.

“It’s time.” Ye Paopao’s solemn voice rang out in the Rest house, rousing the members from their reverie.

At this point, the judge on the stage continued ofﬁciating loudly: “Third Group. Dan Dun Battle Team vs Fei Li Battle Team. Both sides, please send your ﬁrst member on the stage.” In the judge’s eyes, he was only going through a formality. After all, since the Fei Li Battle Team had already secured the top eight spot, they had no reason to ﬁght against the Dan Dun Battle Team. The Kalise Battle Team had also done the same, surrendering to their seeded team without ﬁghting and had already entered the top eight ofﬁcially.”

However, the judge’s anticipated surrender did not come. Instead, a huge, broad-shouldered bulking man walked out from the Fei Li Battle Team Rest House, striding slowly but steadily up the stage.

On the other side, one of the members of the Dan Dun Battle Team also walked out. When he saw that someone had actually walked out from the side of the Fei Li Battle Team, he was taken aback. Just like the judge, none of the Dan Dun Battle Team members had expected Fei Li to even ﬁght them.

Looking at Lin TianAo, the judge said bewilderedly: “You want to ﬁght?”

Lin TianAo said solemnly: “This is our scheduled ﬁght against the Dan Dun Battle Team, why would we not ﬁght?” Lin TianAo’s voice was deep and full, and though his words could not be heard by the audience, all the other teams in their respective Rest Houses nearby could clearly hear him. Instantly, a commotion broke out amongst them all, as an excited chatter rose up; some even scolding the Fei Li Battle

Team of being reckless and not knowing their place.

“You Fei Li Battle Team are getting over conﬁdent huh? To dare to contest our Dan Dun Empire?” The member representing the Dan Dun Battle Team was rather shocked, with also a hint of anger, as if he had been deeply insulted.

Naturally, it was quite understandable for him to feel this way. After all, since the start of the Heavenly Jewel Tournament, they were the ﬁrst seeded team to be challenged by an ‘ordinary’ team.

Lin TianAo said passively: “I am just following the rules of the Tournament, are you trying to tell me that seeded teams can skip ﬁghting if they want?”

The Dan Dun member exclaimed angrily: “Fine, since you do not know your place and want to bite off more than you can chew, we from the Dan Dun Empire will not mind destroying you.” By now, the judge had recovered his composure, his face back to normal.

Solemnly, he said: “Both sides, introduce yourselves.” “Fei Li Battle Team, Lin TianAo.”

“Dan Dun Battle Team, Lan Feng.” “Let the ﬁght begin.”

Chapter 84 Tough ﬁght against Dan Dun!

When Lin TianAo ascended the stage and announced they would compete against the Dan Dun Battle Team, everyone was surprised, but the most surprised would deﬁnitely be the Dan Dun Battle Team members. None of them had expected such a thing to happen, and were caught unaware and had not reacted in time.

According to the tournament rules, when the judge proclaimed the start of the of the ﬁght, it was too late to change the member on the stage, in order to ensure fairness of the tournament. By now, it was too late for them to change the ﬁrst member if they wanted to.

Sitting on the main seat of their Rest House, the young lady from the Dan Dun Battle Team said ponderingly: “What is this Fei Li Battle Team up to?”

The youth beside her said solemnly: “They are merely cicada larvae trying to shake stone pillars, like eggs being thrown at a rock, there is no big deal. Perhaps, they are just trying to go through the formalities of a ﬁght.” The young lady shook her head, saying: “No, it deﬁnitely isn’t that simple. If it were you, would you do something so useless? Lan Feng is the fourth amongst our ﬁve main team members, and that Lin TianAo has already shown his power against the Bai Da Battle Team. This ﬁght might not end well for us. Next round, you go on ahead. As long as we take one of the ﬁrst two rounds, they do not have any chance. Just depending on those two unique three-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Masters is no use against us.”

“Leader, it’s just the Fei Li Battle Team, do we need to be so serious?” The youth said doubtfully.

The young lady gave a cold humph and said: “It always pays to be safe. Do as I say.”

At this point, the audience in the plaza also found out about the Fei Li Battle Team challenging the Dan Dun Battle Team, and a huge commotion arose. Of course, there were also countless people who regretted not betting on the Fei Li Battle Team actually challenging the seeded team.

On the stage, after both sides had introduced themselves, the ﬁght ofﬁcially started. Lan Feng, who had been furious from being challenged, attacked immediately. He did not even release any of his Consolidated Equipment, charging forth in a ﬂash and striking out at Lin TianAo with his palm.

Although it was just a simple palm strike, it deﬁnitely showed his power as a main team member of a seeded team. Without using any Consolidated Equipment and Stored Skills, he was still able to ﬂow into motion so quickly right in the instant of the start of the ﬁght, not a hint of hesitation in his movements. It was as if his palm was right in front of Lin TianAo the moment the judge ﬁnished speaking.

At that point, Lan Feng’s palm turned white.

When a Heavenly Jewel Master’s Heavenly Energy reached the Heavenly Shen Energy stage, he would be able release his Heavenly Energy out of his body. Yet, this time, Lan Feng was not doing so, instead hiding it within his palm. Without question, that would deﬁnitely increase the power of his palm strike. At the same time, the speed of attack would prevent Lin TianAo from releasing his own skills or Consolidated Equipment, and to only be able to take his attack head on.

Lin TianAo was indeed unable to release any skills or Consolidated Equipment, but his reaction was out of Lin Feng’s expectations. Lin TianAo did not even attempt to block the palm, instead pufﬁng out his chest to take the blow. At the same time, his right palm also struck outwards viciously towards Lan Feng’s head.

Lin TianAo was a lot taller than Lin Feng, and when both used the same attack, even with Lin TianAo’s attack being slightly slower, their point of attack was very different.

Without question, Lin Feng’s attack would strike ﬁrst, and normally that would give him the advantage. However, in this case, he would be striking at Lin TianAo’s chest, with his powerful dense muscles and tough ribs protecting him. Yet, Lin TianAo’s palm would in turn be striking at out at his head. The head was deﬁnitely a weaker point, and even if it didn’t kill him off, it would possibly stun him and cause him to be unable to react.

In doing this, Lin TianAo was besieging Wei to rescue Zhao, showing his battle experience and combat prowess.

However, Lan Feng also showed that he was indeed worthy of being a main member of the Dan Dun Battle Team, reacting quickly as well. Seeing Lin TianAo’s palm, he instantly judged that he would be at the disadvantage if they exchanged blows. However, instead of retreating, he advanced further, speeding up and stooping down. In doing so, he could avoid Lin TianAo’s blow, while his own blow would now be striking lower towards the belly instead of the chest.

Lin TianAo’s movement was even simpler. As Lin Feng switched moves in that instant, his right knee had already slammed upwards as if he had anticipated everything, striking right into Lan Feng’s palm which had been about to hit him. At the same time, his palm which had barely missed Lan Feng’s head was now above it, and gripping it into a ﬁst, he struck downwards onto Lan Feng’s back.

*PENG* The knee and palm clashed together. Lan Feng knew that his attack had been foiled, and quickly used the impact to push himself back, vaulting away just as Lin TianAo’s ﬁst came crashing down. In that instant, the two had clashed in several blows before they sprang apart again, in a seeming draw.

Although this quick clash had been completed in almost an instant, a huge roar of approval erupted from the audience.

As compared to the earlier ﬁghts today, this was indeed much more exciting and impressive, as they put on an amazing display in a swift exchange of blows. Both sides had indeed shown their power and skill, with Lan Feng taking the offensive initiative by striking quickly and preventing Lin TianAo from releasing his Consolidated Equipment and Skills. Lin TianAo had also used his own incredible combat experience to deal with the attacks in the best way possible, and both sides had reacted to each other nearly perfectly, with neither side gaining any advantage. However, in terms of strategic advantage, Lan Feng had failed in his goal to prevent Lin TianAo from releasing his Consolidated Equipment, and had lost slightly in that sense.

In a real battleﬁeld, Heavenly Jewel Masters actually would not unleash their full power for the entire time, and they usually wouldn’t even use their Consolidated Equipment or Stored Skills unless necessary. After all, they had a limited amount of Heavenly Energy, and in a huge ﬁght, it was critical to conserve as much as possible. As such, they usually only used their own combat powers boosted with Heavenly Energy. This short clash between the two had truly shown this side of a Heavenly Jewel Master’s true power.

Lin TianAo did not try to chase Lan Feng when he retreated. Instead, a thick yellow glow sprung up around him as his ﬁve Assembly Set Shield appeared in his hands. Lan Feng did not continue attacking as well, as light sprung up around him as well, as he too brought forth his Consolidated Equipment. Five green Dragonstone Jade Physical Jewels appeared in a brilliant glow, and swiftly coalesced onto both his legs and his right arm. Both legs were enclosed in a green armored leggings, as well as his right arm and hands. At the same time, a green short sword appeared in his right hand.

When the Consolidated Equipment appeared around Lan Feng, the faces of the Fei Li Battle Team members in their Rest House changed.

Without question, this Lan Feng was specialised in speed, with the Agility Physical Jewel. Alas, as an Ultimate Defense specialist, Lin TianAo’s worst enemy was a speed-type Heavenly Jewel Master.

Zhou Weiqing’s strategy was indeed good, and they had indeed used their leader against one of the Dan Dun Battle Team’s weaker members. Alas, they had not expected that this member just happened to be of a type that happened to counter Lin TianAo.

Feeling the worried gazes of his companions, Zhou Weiqing said softly: “Let’s watch and see ﬁrst, we can trust in Leader. I am conﬁdent that he will still be able to snatch victory.” In the instant that Lan Feng released his Consolidated Equipment, Lin TianAo reacted. Retreating swiftly, he moved to place his back at the corner of a stage.

Without a doubt, he had made the best possible decision he could on seeing his opponent’s Attributes. The Heavenly Jewel Tournament rules were that anyone not on the stage would lose, and in doing this, he would lower the possibility of Lan Feng exploiting his speed against him, and having one less angle of attack to defend.

Of course, it wasn’t that Lan Feng could not still make use of his speed to attack him from the back, but that would give Lin TianAo the opportunity to knock him down off the stage. Making full use of the rules of the Tournament, Lin TianAo had brought his disadvantage to a minimum.

Right at that moment, Lan Feng took action again, though his body only seemed to waver slightly. In the next instant, he closed the twenty yard gap almost in the blink of an eye, the short sword in his hand ﬂickering out like lightning, almost too fast for ordinary humans to catch with the naked eye.

Lan Feng’s sword strike was not targeted at Lin TianAo, instead striking out at the ground on his feet. Lin TianAo was standing near the edge of the stage, and Lan Feng’s plan was to destroy the ground and cause him to lose his balance.

A loud crash resounded as Lan Feng’s short sword struck into the ground. With his cultivation level and power, he was naturally able to cut through the solid diamond bedrock, but yet, in that moment, his short sword was blocked. Of course, it was not blocked by the bedrock, but by Lin TianAo’s heavy shield.

As the dust settled, the audience could see that the bottom of the ﬁve-Jeweled Assembly Shield Set had bitten savagely into the ground, blocking Lan Feng’s attack perfectly. With an upward swing of his sword, Lan Feng brought it across the shield, causing a chain of sparks to ﬂy out with the friction as his entire body seemed to become a cloud of smoke, as he lashed out in a sudden ﬂurry of more than a hundred blows from all different possible angles. He was like a ghost, dancing about as he sought to ﬁnd any weakness in Lin TianAo’s defense.

Right at that moment, Lin TianAo showed that he was truly worthy of his ultimate defense. Facing such a ﬂurry of crafty attacks from so many different angles, he did not panic. He might not be as fast as his opponent, but his huge shield only needed to move the slightest bit in order to block his opponent’s blows at the right time and place. Even if Lan Feng’s attack was able to slide in behind the shield, it was quickly knocked away as he was unable to get his entire body through and follow through with the blow.

Lan Feng was indeed worthy of his Great Saint Lands background. His ﬂurry of attacks was chained almost perfectly, sharp and decisive, showing not just his speed and agility but also his decision making. Even an ultimate defense type Heavenly Jewel Master like Lin TianAo was forced to focus fully and expend all his efforts in blocking him. Yet, Lan Feng continued, raining down blows as if it did not cost him any Heavenly Energy, in a beautiful ﬂowing motion like mercury or quicksilver, pervasive and all encompassing. As he continued in this deadly dance, he did not seem to slow down, instead slowly speeding up and increasing the range and angle of his attacks. Several times, he almost managed to get past Lin TianAo’s shield and get to him.

As both sides dueled in rapid motion, both their Heavenly Energy was being expended at a considerable rate. However, if one observed their expressions, they would see that both of their faces were set in a determined look, their eyes serious and resolute as not one would back down til the end. In the Dan Dun Rest House, the young lady at the head set inclined her head slightly, saying: “This Lin TianAo is truly impressive. To be able to use such a passive style of combat, to use something like the Assembly Set Consolidated Equipment to such a degree of perfection, that is not a simple matter. If he is able to persist and continue on this route all the way to the ninth Jewel, his defense will be truly terrifying indeed.”

Literal translation of the idiom, basically means instead of defending something, attack another critical point of the enemy instead, forcing them to either lose more or retreat to defend, thus ‘enabling’ your own defense at the same time. Its origin references a famous battle in the past “Leader, in your perspective, do you think Lan Feng can defeat him? Attacking usually takes a greater toll than defense, but that Assembly Shield Set of his should be quite a considerable drain as well…”

The young lady leader said: “Lan Feng is already doing very well. Up till now, he has not yet used a single Stored Skill, only making use of his speed and combat prowess to look for his opponent’s weak points. That Lin TianAo’s shield is way too powerful for him to breakthrough forcefully, not even if he used his full power with his Stored Skills, and he would lose if he tried that route instead. This way, he is forcing both to a stalemate where both sides are expending Heavenly Energy, and it is hard to say who will run out ﬁrst. At this point, the person who runs out of Heavenly Energy ﬁrst will lose. However, from my judgement of both their characters, they will not be satisﬁed with winning in such a manner, and letting the ‘heavens’ and luck determine their victory. In the last moment, they will probably have another huge clash. It will be down to that moment, and who will be able to maintain calm and equanimous.”

Almost as if her analysis was a prophecy, as soon as the words left the Dan Dun Leader’s mouth, the situation on the stage changed drastically.

By this point, even though the ﬁght had not lasted long, due to the sheer speed and intensity of their clashes, the drain on their Heavenly Energy was already very considerable. Just as the leader of the Dan Dun Battle Team had said, no one liked having their fate out of their hands, and it seemed like at that moment, Lin TianAo had not been able to contain himself any longer.

As his shield shoved outwards abruptly, Lin TianAo made a motion as if he were about to charge forward. Quickly, his right foot slammed savagely onto the ground, causing a huge ringing sound as the entire stage reverberated with the shockwave, even causing Lan Feng to pause for a split second.

In that split second when Lan Feng was distracted, Lin TianAo seized the chance to strike, lashing out with his shield lightning quick. The shield split instantly into ﬁve, striking out from ﬁve different directions at Lan Feng, also blocking off any possible escape route.

A look of disdain ﬂashed on Lin Feng’s face as he smirked, thinking to himself that Lin TianAo had not been the ﬁrst to give up. A swirling green mist appeared from under his feet, immediately blocking off the reverberations from Lin TianAo’s stomp, before expanding outwards, causing Lin TianAo’s shields to stall momentarily. In the next moment, Lan Feng moved like a bolt of light, as if he had merged with his sword, striking out at Lin TianAo. His speed was pushed to the maximum, making use of that moment he had created to slip

pass the shields.

In a ﬂash of green light, a skill that Zhou Weiqing used so very often appeared, landing on Lin TianAo. It was the Fetters of Wind! At the same time, the short sword in Lan Feng’s hands had arrived at Lin TianAo’s chest.

I’ve won! That was the only thought in Lan Feng’s mind at that point. Lin TianAo had acted ﬁrst in the stalemate, giving him the opportunity to turn the tides. It had been the the chance he had been waiting for.

However, at that moment, he suddenly saw Lin TianAo’s eyes, and was surprised to see that in such a circumstance where there was no room to dodge, without his shield, there was still no sign of change in Lin TianAo’s eyes.

Not good. Although Lan Feng was an ultimate Agility type Heavenly Jewel Master, at this point of time and being so committed to the attack, it was already too late for him to change or stop his attack.

Without a choice, he could only grit his teeth and strike out with all his power.

Abruptly, an almost invisible shield appeared between the two. It was Lin TianAo’s Illusory Shield! Obviously, Lin TianAo had secretly released this skill after he had attacked with his Assembly Shield Set in preparation. Of course, when exactly he had done so, no one but himself knew.

That was not the only thing, the thick, heavy rock armour encased Lin TianAo from top to bottom.

*Poof* The Illusory Shield was shattered by Lan Feng’s attack, and the short sword in his hands continued in its path.

In the short moment that the Illusory Shield blocked the attack, Lin TianAo managed to forcefully move himself an inch, getting his vital points out of the way of the strike. Backed with Lan Feng’s full power, the short sword stabbed into Lin TianAo’s shoulder with a sickening sound. Although a vast majority of its power had been dissipated by the Illusory Shield and the Stoneskin Armour, almost half the blade stabbed right in.

Alas, the defense was still a success, and Lin TianAo had not been felled by the blow. Unexpectedly, Lan Feng felt that the instant his sword stabbed into Lin TianAo, it was locked into place by his muscles, and Lin TianAo also grabbed his wrist with a vice grip.

All of this had been part of Lin TianAo’s calculations, even down to the place where he had been stabbed.

Holding Lan Feng’s arm in place by the wrist, Lin TianAo totally ignored his own injuries, instead exerting his considerable strength and lifting Lan Feng up entirely. Lin TianAo then toppled backwards, savagely smashing Lan Feng down towards the ground off the stage. As he did so, he quickly let go, ensuring he kept his balance and stayed on the stage. The ﬁve shields also shot down towards Lan Feng, ensuring that he would not be able to recover before he touched the ground. *Thud* Lan Feng landed on his feet, and in the next moment, he sprang back onto the stage. Just as he was about to continue, the judge’s voice rang out.

“Stop. The ﬁght is over.”

Lan Feng’s body froze, looking confusedly at the judge who had appeared in front of him. Angrily, he cried out: “I have not lost!”

The judge said expressionlessly: “According to the rules of the Tournament, anyone who drops off the stage loses. Fei Li Battle Team versus Dan Dun Battle Team, ﬁrst ﬁght, Fei Li Battle Team wins.”

Lan Feng wanted to continue protesting, but a cold clear voice rang out from the Dan Dun Rest House. “Enough. Come back here Lan Feng, a loss is a loss. When he grabbed your arm earlier, he could have possibly killed you then if he had chosen to.”

Even though Lan Feng did not want to accept the loss, and was not satisﬁed, he could not disobey his leader and got off the stage hufﬁly. As he did so, he gave Lin TianAo a furious glare.

Releasing the Stoneskin Armour, Lin TianAo’s entire right shoulder was quickly soaked red with blood. Using his Heavenly Energy, he sealed the blood vessels around the area, suppressing the wound as he slowly walked down expressionlessly.

The moment Lin TianAo walked off the stage, only then did Zhou Weiqing heave a sigh of relief. “That was close.”

As the saying goes, things don’t always go according to plan. In his entire strategy, Lin TianAo would likely meet one of the Dan Dun Battle Team’s weaker members, likely a ﬁve-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master, and he was conﬁdent in Lin TianAo beating him. Unfortunately, he had not expected that it would just happen to be an Ultimate Agility Type that happened to counter Lin TianAo. If not for Lin TianAo’s cultivation level being slightly higher than his opponent, with better combat experience and planning, with a dash of luck, they might have actually lost this critical ﬁrst ﬁght!

Still, all had ended well, giving them a much needed ﬁrst victory against a seeded team. They were off on a good start.

Chapter 85 Frost Priest!

Lin TianAo walked into the Rest House and sat down immediately, but the look on his face was not relaxed at all. Looking at Zhou Weiqing, he said seriously: “They are truly very strong indeed.”

Zhou Weiqing paused, then said: “Are you still able to ﬁght in the top eight?”

Lin TianAo thought for a moment, then said: “If I do not have to ﬁght again today, ﬁve days of rest should be sufﬁcient. I was fully prepared for the blow, and his sword was weakened by my Illusory Shield and Stoneskin Armor, and I positioned it so there isn’t any serious injuries. However, if this was not a tournament and a real ﬁght in the open, it would be extremely difﬁcult for me to take him. In such a scenario, even if I beat him, I would have to pay a heavy price. Weiqing, what do you think?”

Zhou Weiqing understood what he was asking about, and said with a bitter smile: “I’m really unable to tell at this point. As per my plan, the real test for us will be whether or not we can take the third victory.” At this moment, the judge called out: “Both sides, please send your second member onto the stage now.”

The members of the Fei Li Battle Team all turned to Little Four, while he in turn looked towards Zhou Weiqing. Without question, Zhou Weiqing’s plan was still in motion; despite the difﬁculty he faced, Lin TianAo had managed to pull of the win. This was deﬁnitely a great boost in morale to the entire team, and gave them more conﬁdence in Zhou Weiqing’s entire strategy.

Zhou Weiqing looked towards Little Four with a serious expression, saying: “Bro Four, as I mentioned, you might be meeting their second strongest member in their team, and it will be an extremely tough ﬁght. However, despite that, it is still a very important ﬁght for us. Your task will be to make use of guerilla tactics, to make full use of your speed to stall the opponent. Your main task here is to ensure that your opponent uses up as much Heavenly Energy as possible, to ensure that he is unable to join the 2v2 match. If possible, try not to clash directly with him or her.”

To be able to represent the Fei Li Battle Team in the Heavenly Jewel Master, each of them were outstanding in their own right, perhaps even geniuses. Even though Zhou Weiqing did not elaborate further, Little Four quickly understood the gravity of his task. “Understood. I will do my best.”

Turning around, Little Four walked out of the Rest House towards the stage. As he did so, he saw his opponent walk out from the nearby Dan Dun Battle Team Rest House as well.

His opponent was a youth of about 26 or 27 years of age, standing tall and straight. His height was almost equal to Zhou Weiqing, but not as well built. His features were average, but had an air about him that made him seem approachable. However, if one looked closely, they might see a hint of a darkness hidden deep in his eyes, and could possibly give one an uncomfortable feeling.

The youth did not even look at Little Four, instead stepping into the air as if just strolling casually onto the stage.

Little Four’s heart gripped slightly, and he couldn’t help but feel impressed by Zhou Weiqing’s estimations. Evidently, this youth was much more powerful than Lan Feng previously.

Little Four also strode up the stage slowly, and under the judge’s instructions, both sides introduced themselves. “Fei Li Battle Team, Xiao Si.” Little Four’s original name was indeed Xiao Si, but his close friends all called him Little Four instead.

“Dan Dun Battle Team, Han Bing.” The youth spoke crisply and simply. At this time, the two were looking at each other, and Little Four did not see any emotions in Han Bing’s eyes.

Below the stage, in the Dan Dun Resting House, Lan Feng returned with a vexed look on his face, saying to the young lady: “Leader, I am truly not satisﬁed, I cannot accept that loss.”

The young lady looked at him coldly. “What do you have to be dissatisﬁed about? Do you know why you lost?”

Without hesitation, Lan Feng said: “I was too careless, and fell into his trap.”

The young lady shook her head, saying: “No, you’re wrong. You lost because of the difference in power. In terms of absolute strength, he is deﬁnitely much more powerful than you… Even if Han Bing were to ﬁght him, it would be very close, and even a victory would take a heavy toll. That man’s defense is much higher than you think. If not for the fact that your speed counters his type, you would have lost in a much worse fashion.”

Seeing the look of disbelief on Lan Feng’s face, she continued. “Battle experience and strategy is also part of one’s power. Even if there wasn’t the restrictions of the tournament rules, you would still lose in the end, though perhaps you might give him some more problems. That man’s character… His tenacity… And his power… It is a perfect match, and he is deﬁnitely an outstanding talent. For a person with no Great Saint Lands background, to be able to reach such a level before the age of thirty, that is already an unbelievable feat.”

As she spoke up to this point, she paused, then said in a gentler tone. “Lan Feng, you do not need to feel so vexed. After all, you are a lot younger than he is. Furthermore, if I am not wrong, he is the Leader of the Fei Li Battle Team, and most likely their strongest member as well. Losing that ﬁght… Will not affect the ﬁnal result for us.”

Lan Feng nodded, his expression ﬁnally clearing up, and he said: “Priest will take revenge for me.” Han Bing’s nickname in the Dan Dun Battle Team was Priest, and they often called him that instead, sometimes even calling him Frost Priest. The Blood Red Hell was one of the weaker of the Great Saint Lands, and in terms of overall strength they were only slightly stronger than the Heavenly Demon Sect. In fact, in terms of comparing their highest level of powerhouses, the top echelons of the Heavenly Demon Sect were even stronger than them! As such, in order to achieve a good result in the Heavenly Jewel Tournament and ensure they could enter the highly important Heavenly Jewel Island, they had sent some of their top talents in the younger generation; amongst them, both Han Bing and the young lady leader were considered the cream of the crop.

The Five Great Saint Lands could not directly enter the Tournament, but in truth it was just a matter of naming. When representing the Empires they did, as long as they didn’t use the top power of their Great Saint Lands, it was still not easy to tell. After all, it was easy for a powerful Heavenly Jewel Master to hide their true strength should they chose to do so.

As such, the entire Dan Dun Battle Team team had absolute conﬁdence in Frost Priest taking this ﬁght. Even if Lin TianAo were to face him, they was barely a thirty percent chance of victory, perhaps even only a ten percent chance, let alone the other members of the Fei Li Battle Team.

As the judge proclaimed the start of the ﬁght, Little Four instantly felt a huge pressure upon him. He could clearly see that with a wave of his hands, Han Bing’s Heavenly Jewels appeared, and six red Physical Jewel appeared around his wrist.

The Red Jade Physical Jewel represented the Coordination Attribute, but that was not the focus of Little Four’s attention; naturally, it was the number of Jewels that worried him.

In all the twenty four Battle Teams that had fought so far, the highest cultivation level was Five-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Masters. Any team who had one was already considered above average, and those with two or more was already considered extremely powerful. The Bai Da Battle Team had been such a case. In fact, about half the teams did not have a single Five- Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master!

Yet, the four Great Saint Lands showed their true power, not just in terms of their combat experience and ﬁghting abilities, but even the superiority of their cultivation level. Han Bing was one such example indeed. He was an Upper Level Zun Stage Heavenly Jewel Master with six sets of Heavenly Jewels!

For Heavenly Jewel Masters, each set of Jewels was a massive difference in power levels. It wasn’t just the difference in Heavenly Energy, quality of it, as well as the number of skills and even the strength of the skills! Of course, those monsters like Zhou Weiqing who ‘broke’ such ‘rules’ existed, but were extremely rare. After all, the majority of Heavenly Jewel Masters only had a single Elemental attribute, and their Skills were thus extremely limited.

Six Jewels versus Five Jewels, under any ordinary circumstances, the Six-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master would have more than a seventy percent chance of winning. That was even so under the assumption that both had equal experience and normal combat skills. As for Six Jewels versus Four Jewels, ordinarily the Four Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master would have no chance at all.

Han Bing looked coldly at Little Four, and as soon as the ﬁght started, he lifted his right hand, and a red staff appeared in his hands.

The staff looked as if it was crafted from red coral, glimmering with a brilliant crystalline light. What was shocking to Little Four was that on the tip of the staff, there were three sockets!

Indeed, there was no mistake. Three sockets. For a Consolidated Equipment to have three sockets, its scroll had to be created by a Zong Stage Consolidating Equipment Master or higher. This youth was truly worthy of being one of the top talents of a Great Saint Lands, and as soon as the ﬁght started, he showed off some of his terrifying power.

Three resplendent Elemental Jewels immediately ﬁlled the sockets. Han Bing did not even bother to use any other Consolidated Equipment or skills, and the three Star Sapphire Elemental Jewels of his shone from the staff, adding to its brilliance. An icy blue colour formed a shield of light, enveloping his entire body.

Little Four’s combat experience was not to be underestimated, and he could instantly tell that the powerful shield of light was not one of the Skills from the Socketed Elemental Jewels, but rather one of the automatic abilities of the staff when the three sockets were ﬁlled with Elemental Jewels.

Han Bing’s nickname was Priest, and his expertise was mid- long ranged combat. Lifting his staff, thirty six blue spots of light appeared outside his blue shield of light. In the next instant, they all sped towards Little Four from all directions, as if blotting out the very atmosphere. It was thirty six ice cones. Silent, deadly, bringing with it a swift cold wind.

Cone of Cold, or ice cones, was not a particularly powerful Skill amongst the Water Attribute Skills, with only a four star rating. Yet, it had one beneﬁt, the number of ice cones created. Even a one-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master was able to release six ice cones when using the Skill.

In terms of explosive power, the ice cones were deﬁnitely unable to compare to ﬁreballs. However, their strength was in their piercing power. More importantly, with a nickname like Frost Priest, the ice cones that Han Bing released were no ordinary ones!

As the thirty six ice cones appeared, Little Four felt as if his breathing was being smothered, almost suffocating, as the temperature in the air dropped dramatically. Although Han Bing did not release any other supporting Skills, just the presence of the ice cones alone actually caused the temperature of the entire surrounding air to drop, almost like Ye Paopao’s Freezing Field skill! This would also reduce his opponent’s speed and reaction.

The thirty six ice cones were not white, but blue, as if they were blue crystals. At this point, the very skies seemed to turn overcast as the ice cones hovered in the air, causing a brilliant contrast as compared to the gloomy skies.

Little Four could sense that those ice cones were deﬁnitely powerful, almost deadly, and he could not judge them like any ordinary Heavenly Jewel Master’s Cone of Cold. Not only were they cast by someone like Han Bing, Six-Jeweled, and with his own understanding, control and compressed improvement of the skill, it was also highly boosted by the staff in Han Bing’s hands. The ice cones were clearly much smaller than the ordinary ice cones produced by the usual Cone of Cold.

Remembering Zhou Weiqing’s instructions, Little Four did not attempt to take the attacks head on. As soon as Han Bing released the staff and the shield of light, Little Four’s body was already speeding backwards in a hasty retreat. At the same time as he did so, he released his Consolidated Equipment Wings, though he did not release any of his offensive Consolidated Equipment.

Different Xiao (肖四）instead of ⼩四, which means little four

His name Han Bing 寒冰 literally means cold ice. His nickname (祭祀) was a little harder, literally meaning Sacriﬁce to the Gods. I translated the entire nickname / title as Frost Priest Little Four was originally small and skinny, and he could squeeze and compress his body even smaller to make himself a tinier target. On the stage, it was as if he was a ﬂea jumping around, the wings around his back in a half open state, with only half revealed. This was a movement technique that Little Four had developed by himself, and the wings were currently not used for ﬂying, but under such a half opened state, it not only raised his speed considerably, it also enabled him to glide through the air. In that way, not only was he able to move quickly as he pleased, he was able to switch his motion pattern about to ensure that no one could easily read him and judge his paths. At the same time, he was also ensuing the least amount of surface area of his body was available to be struck.

Han Bing’s attacks were swift, sharp and decisive, but more importantly, their area of effect was huge. Thirty six ice cones, it was as if they were thirty six soldiers, under Han Bing’s impressive control, they split apart in the air and scattered across the stage, enclosing in around Little Four and his surroundings, before grouping into three waves to strike down at Little Four at lightning speed. Such control, it truly showed Han Bing’s power as a mid-long ranged combat specialist.

Watching from below, Zhou Weiqing’s hands were gripped in ﬁsts as his heart was ﬁlled with nervousness. Just like he said to Little Four, every ﬁght was critical to their team, and this was no different. With Han Bing’s power and Six-Jeweled cultivation level, if he was able to continue ﬁghting in the 2v2 match with more than seventy percent of his power left, that would mean they would not have any chance at all. It was now all down to Little Four, and how much he was able to drain Han Bing of.

As Zhou Weiqing looked at the attacks of Han Bing, he couldn’t help but recall what he had gone through while tempering his Skills, and he understood once again that although the number of Skills and changes was important, it was just as important to have good control over them. For a Heavenly Jewel Master, even if he only focused on a single Skill and mastered it to a ﬁne level, he would still be extremely powerful. A perfect example would be Han Bing in front of him, after all hadn’t he perfected his mastery over this Four Star Rated Cone of Cold, to such a terrifying level?

Facing such a ﬂurry of attacks, Little Four’s expression grew cold and calm. His legs exerting in a sudden burst of power, he did not retreat, instead charging forward. As he did so, his body remained in that tucked-in position, shrinking in. At this point, he ﬁnally released his offensive Consolidated Equipment. At this point, Zhou Weiqing nodded inwardly. He knew that Little Four was totally following his outlined strategy; conserving as much energy as possible, even to the point that he only released his weapon at the last moment.

As soon as Little Four made his move, the thirty six ice cones reacted, as if they had eyes, converging upon him once more from all directions. As for Han Bing, he just continued moving his staff rhythmically, not releasing any other Skills, just focusing on controlling the thirty six ice cones.

At this point, Little Four ﬁnally had come into his own, showing off his true power. His rapidly speeding body suddenly stopped without warning. If one noticed carefully, he would be able to realise that Little Four’s wings had spread out widely suddenly, increasing the drag resistance, allowing him to come to a halt so suddenly.

As soon as he stopped, Little Four drew in his wings before ﬂapping out hard with the left one, causing him to execute a roll in midair. At the same time, he struck out swiftly with the Consolidated spike in his hand.

*Poof* *Poof* *Poof* Three sounds, and three ice cones disintegrated in midair. Almost immediately after that, Little Four’s body shrank back into his tucked in position one more, launching himself into the tiny gap he had created, warping into a silver light as he sped away once again.

The thirty six ice cones were now thirty three, and Han Bing was slightly taken aback.

Little Four’s speedy movement was beyond his prediction; no matter how strong and ﬁne a control he had over his ice cones, he had not been able to contain Little Four.

With Little Four’s movements so against the normal thinking, or even physics, with the abrupt stops, strange pathing and rolls, it was inevitable that Han Bing made an error in judgement in boxing him in. This was especially so since Little Four did not try to approach him from the front, instead moving from side to side.

After releasing the thirty six ice cones, although Han Bing could still control them, but it would not last forever. After all, normally whenever a Heavenly Jewel Master released his Skill, there would be a certain period of time when he could control the skill, depending on his own control and the skill itself. After that period of time, it would be considered fully released and ﬁnished. At this point, Han Bing showed the crowd his power once more. With a wave of his staff, another thirty six ice cones ﬂew out. However the new ice cones did not rush towards Little Four, instead striking out towards the thirty three old ice cones which were almost about to fall down. As the ice cones struck

each other, they actually melded into each other, causing them to grow larger! Of course, only the three which had been destroyed were no longer able to be merged.

Immediately after the melding, thirty three large and three small ice cones them sped towards Little Four in an encompassing spread.

“Damn, is that even possible?”

As for the rest of the Fei Li Battle Team, they stared from their seats, their jaw agape in shock.

On the VIP stage.

Shangguan Tianxin said in surprise: “Such powerful and ﬁne control! Longyin, how is that Han Bing’s power?” Shangguan Longyin replied: “He is one of the top talents in the younger generation of the Blood Red Hell. From young, his spirit energy was unnaturally high, far beyond any of his same level. His own Heavenly Jewel Master attributes and talent weren’t exceptional, just above average in that sense. However, his control was exceptional, and gained him the attention of the upper echelons of the Blood Red Hell. Without the Great Attribute, the Spirit Attribute, his spirit energy was still more

than three times that of an ordinary Heavenly Jewel Master of the same cultivation level, allowing him to have such ﬁne, accurate control. As such, he is one of the top few talents in the Blood Red Hell, and they have high expectations of him. In the younger generation, he is second only to the leader of this Dan

Dun Battle Team, Shen Little Demon.”

Shangguan Tianxin nodded, saying: “Pay more attention to him as well. For a young man like that who did not have exceptional attributes and talent, to be able to work hard and focus on his other assets and gain such power at that age, he is deﬁnitely worth looking into. Such a person normally has the tenacity and hard work that some of those so-called genius do not have.”

Shangguan Longyin nodded in agreement, before continuing: “Your Majesty, in truth, I am a lot more interested in that little brat from the Fei Li Battle Team we were talking about previously.” Shangguan Tianxin looked at him in surprise, saying: “Oh? Longyin, it isn’t easy to spark such interest in you! What did you ﬁnd out about him?”

Shangguan Longxin said: “He is called Zhou Weiqing, and isn’t actually a citizen of the Fei Li Empire, but instead from the Heavenly Bow Empire, a small empire which is a vassal of the Fei Li Empire. Surprisingly, he only just joined the Fei Li Military Empire this year, not the Fei Li Heavenly Jewel Master Academy. From his previous ﬁghts, he showed the Spatial and Darkness Attributes, both greater attributes. More importantly, he is only sixteen years old! I also heard that he actually personally bet a hundred thousand gold coins on their own team in this ﬁght against Dan Dun Battle Team. Last of all, he is a Consolidating Equipment Master.”

“Consolidating Equipment Master?” Shangguan Tianxin’s gaze turned towards the Fei Li Battle Team Rest House, staring examingly at Zhou Weiqing, who was standing at the entrance focusing hard on the stage. With a curious look in his eyes, Shangguan Tianxin continued: “Longyin, do you know what level of Consolidating Equipment Master he is?”

Shangguan Longxin shook his head, saying: “I have not found out currently. However, he did visit the Consolidating Equipment Pavilion a few days ago… and something VERY interesting happened… Your Majesty will deﬁnitely be interested to hear this.”

As he spoke up to that point, Shangguan Longyin’s voice suddenly went silent. His next words were only heard by Shangguan Tianxin alone.

After listening to Shangguan Longyin, the surprised look on Shangguan Tianxin’s face grew even stronger, with a hint of happiness as well. After pausing a moment, he looked towards Shangguan Longyin and chuckled: “So… that’s what happened. I never expected that second brother managed to ﬁnd Bing’er after so many years. So… that means this little brat Zhou Weiqing will be my future nephew in law? Haha!”

Shangguan Longyin said: “Yes. Second Master asked me specially to pay attention to how he does, and to protect him secretly, and not let anything too serious happen to him in the tournament.”

Shangguan Tianxin laughed heartily, saying: “I know second brother’s temper, even if no one else isn’t clear. Haha… that Zhou Weiqing will deﬁnitely have to suffer a lot before he can get together with Bing’er. Hearing you say that, I’m now hoping a little that the Fei Li Battle Team can actually take the ﬁght today…” Shangguan Longyin shook his head and said: “It is much too difﬁcult. If the Dan Dun Battle Team uses their full power, the Fei Li Battle Team will have no chance at all.”

Shangguan Tianxin smiled faintly before saying: “You mean, with the next round Shen Little Demon and Han Bing taking the 2v2 ﬁght, the fourth round with another member, and the last round with Shen Little Demon holding the fort?”

Shangguan Longyin nodded and said: “That would be the best arrangement. However, I highly doubt that they will do that, otherwise even if they win, they will lose face amongst the other Great Saint Lands.”

Shangguan Tianxin sighed softly and said: “That is human nature! In truth, it isn’t so good for the Five Great Saint Lands to put themselves on such a high pedestal. To fall from such a height will only be more pain, more misery.”

As the pair of king and ofﬁcial were discussing, the ﬁght on the stage had grown even more intense.

As the merged ice cones focused on Little Four once more, he too unleashed his full power. Seeing Han Bing’s terrifying control over the ice cones, Little Four did not dare stay in any spot for any period of time.

His entire person seemed like a gust of green smoke, speeding across the wide stage, encircling Han Bing in an unstoppable yet non rhythmic run. Furthermore, he mostly stayed at the outer regions of the stage.

In order to try to catch him, Han Bing had unconsciously stood right in the center of the stage. Even so, he was still able to control his Skill at a radius of almost ﬁfteen yards.

In truth, Little Four’s speed was slower than the Ultimate Speed of Lan Feng. Not only because he wasn’t of the Wind Attribute, but also his cultivation level was lower than Lan Feng’s. However, Little Four’s almost miraculous changes and style of movement caused him to be even more difﬁcult to fathom than Lan Feng. He seemed to move in impossible ways, using his wings in various ways in order to move in unimaginable ways. Soon, Han Bing had already cast his ﬁfth round of Cone of Cold, but Little Four was still moving around, dodging amazingly in a display of agile talent, with nary a sign of attacking.

Han Bing was indeed unbelievable in his own right as well, actually managing to merge all ﬁve waves of the ice cones. Currently, the ice cones in the sky were actually almost a chi long each! The entire air of the stage was getting colder and colder, and even the temperature of the Rest Houses were being affected at such a distance.

With all the ice cones merged together, even if two or three of them struck Little Four, he would not be able to take it, let alone if all hit him. This low rated talent was originally rather scary in Han Bing’s hands, but after all the merging, its power alone was already at terrifying levels.

In the Dan Dun Battle Team Rest House, Lan Feng was watching the ﬁght and he said admiringly: “Priest is indeed Priest, such control and power… he is just too strong. Look at the state of that Fei Li Battle Team fellow… and Priest’s full power hasn’t even been unleashed yet. Not to mention the fact he is only four Jeweled, even if he were six Jeweled like Priest, he would still stand no chance.”

The young lady leader of the Dan Dun Battle Team, or as Shangguan Longyin called her Shen Little Demon, said passively: “Do not underestimate that Fei Li Battle Team fellow. His speed, agility and ability to dodge attacks is truly impressive, especially that movement style of his – it is really quite impressive. I dare say that any other Four-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master would have lost to Han Bing by now, but he is still able to hold on by a thread. However, he will not be able to hold on for that much longer. When Teacher gave Han Bing this training style to suit his special qualities, to continuously improve his spirit and control, it truly has beneﬁted him a lot. Up til now, Han Bing has only Stored this single Skill, the Cone of Cold, but he has been able to make use of just this alone and use it in so many ways, almost inﬁnite varieties and styles. Even I will be hard pressed to defeat him.”

Currently, all the members of the Dan Dun Battle Team, including Shen Little Demon, were relaxed as they watched the ﬁght, as they did not think there was any possibility of Han Bing losing. Although Little Four was still keeping up, he did not have any chance of winning; the difference between power levels of both sides was just too great.

As for the Fei Li Battle Team, in comparison, Zhou Weiqing was also heaving a sigh of relief. He knew that although Little Four would lose in the end, he had accomplished the task set upon him nearly perfectly. At the same time, he was also thinking about how lucky he had been, to actually have been able to defeat Little Four in their bet.

Previously, when they had bet, Little Four had only lost to Zhou Weiqing because he had severely underestimated him and his Control Skills. After all, Zhou Weiqing had just too many Control Skills, and once he had managed to get in the ﬁrst strike, he had controlled Little Four all the way. At this point, seeing Little Four displaying his true speed and movements, only then did Zhou Weiqing realise how impressive he was; perhaps even at a higher level than Ultimate Agility Heavenly Jewel Masters of the same cultivation level.

Although Han Bing was only releasing Cone of Cold and the protective blue shield, which did not have a massive drain on Heavenly Energy, but with the amount of control he was exerting, it still took a toll on his spirit. More importantly, his ice cones were all merged together, and the more that were merged together, the greater the toll on his Energy and spirit, as it became tougher and tougher to control. There was deﬁnitely a limit on that.

At the same time, as the ice cones grew larger, their piercing power and strength grew exponentially, but their speed also grew slightly slower. Furthermore, Little Four still had some skills up his sleeves.

Yet another round of ice cones launched into the air from Han Bing. This time, when they struck the thirty six ice cones in the air and merged together, they did not continue chasing Little Four, instead separating into the air in all directions of the stage.

*Poof* *Poof* *Poof* *Poof* *Poof* Multiple sounds rang out, as the massive two chi long ice cones stabbed down onto the stage ﬂoor, covering the entire outer ring of the stage. Impressively, the distance between each and every cone was almost exactly the same, forming thirty six large ice pillars on the outskirts, surrounding the entire stage.

A sinking feeling of impending doom struck Little Four, and although the stage was deathly cold, his clothes were totally soaked in sweat. In order to dodge the continuous onslaught of ice cones, he had already been far outdoing his best efforts, and by this time he had already expended more than ﬁfty percent of his own Heavenly Energy, and more so, a huge amount of spirit energy. However, he knew that he had to continue, to persist to the end.

Trusting in his instincts that things were going to go badly, Little Four instantly reacted. The wings behind his back opened to their maximum capacity as he launched himself into the air at top speed, rising swiftly in ﬂight.

Another thirty six ice cones ﬂew out again, speeding towards the thirty six thick ice pillars. This time, the fresh new ice cones were actually a deep blue colour, obviously the Heavenly Energy held within was far beyond that of the previous ones in both quality and quantity.

“Explode.” The next moment, the thirty six new deep blue ice cones struck the thirty six ice pillars, causing another round of loud explosions. The ice cones and pillars had exploded abruptly, spraying ice dust and shards across the entire stage. At the same time, a violent and wild torrent of Water Attribute Heavenly Energy swept across the stage like a giant tsunami wave.

This Skill by Han Bing was one he had created on his own, with the Cone of Cold as a basis, and was called Frozen Sacriﬁce. Its sheer power and strength was so vast that even a normal Lower Level Zong Stage (7 Jewels) Heavenly Jewel Master might not be able to use a skill of matching power. More importantly, as this skill was based on multiple merging and evolution of the low level, it would only expend about thirty percent of his total Heavenly Energy, yet its power would be beyond what his entire Heavenly Energy expenditure could normally grant. Furthermore, it was an Area of Effect skill!

When the ﬁght ﬁrst began, Han Bing did not even think that he would be forced to use this Frozen Sacriﬁce Skill, and he originally thought that after a few mergers of Cone of Cold, he would be able to take down Little Four. However, as time passed, Little Four was just too cunning, and his impossible movements were just too difﬁcult to lock down.

Han Bing did not want to waste any more time, and winning by having Little Four run out of energy would be a humiliation to himself. As such, he ﬁnally chose to use his self-created ace skill, and AOE skill that would deﬁnitely take down this crafty opponent. At the same time, he could let the other Great Saint Lands see the power of their Blood Red Hell.

If Lan Feng had not lost the ﬁrst ﬁght, perhaps Han Bing would not have used such a powerful skill, but the humiliation of that lost had ignited his pride and anger. In his heart, he would not entertain anyone giving affront to the dignity of the Blood Red Hell. When he released this Skill, a killing intent had already been sparked in his heart; he wanted to kill a chicken to scare the monkeys, to show everyone, to show the Fei Li Battle Team, that to defy the pride of a Great Saint Land was not to be without cost.

The thirty six huge ice pillars did not all explode at the same time, instead doing so in a rhythmic fashion, and in a particular order. In this way, their combined explosive power soon formed a terrifying ice vortex; not only was the explosive power astonishing, it also caused the entire temperature of the surroundings to plummet even further.

This Frozen Sacriﬁce skill was varied and full of change, and the explosive power was all encompassing and yet able to be directed as per his will. Han Bing had indeed spent a lot of time and effort in creating and mastering this skill, and it was his pride and joy.

When the intense explosion rang out, all the Battle Teams in their respective Rest Houses could see clearly that the entire diamond-rock stage had turned an icy blue, the cold in the air spreading to them, chilling them to the bone. For a Water Attribute skill to be used to such an extent, it could already be said to be at an ultimate extreme. The Consolidated weapon in Little Four’s hand had disappeared. As soon as he sensed the incoming danger, he had reacted instantly. Alas, in that same instant, a terrifying explosion and ensuing cold reached his feet.

With his life hanging in the balance, Little Four’s mind raced to ﬁnd a solution. His reaction had already been lightning quick, managing to almost get out of the area of effect; as the Frozen Sacriﬁce struck, he was already thirty metres into the air, at least managing to avoid the major brunt of the blast. Alas, he was still caught in the edges of the explosion, and in midair, he was almost left vulnerable.

At the last moment, Little Four abruptly used both wings to wrap around his entire body, before he did something completely unexpected.

In a sudden movement, he ﬂung out his hands, a waterskin appearing in his hands and bursting apart, and a spray of water was quickly sprayed around his body.

The temperature around the stage was unbelievably cold at that point, and even though Little Four had already wrapped his wings around himself, as the water appeared, it immediately froze around his body, forming a block of ice around him. At that point, Little Four’s weird action of spraying water actually had a linchpin effect. Although his entire body was frozen in the block of ice, the destructive effects of the explosion were further reduced by the ice around him, only causing his body to be ﬂung savagely higher into the air, reaching almost a height of sixty metres. As the explosion ﬁnally dissipated, he ﬁnally fell towards the ground.

At that point, Zhou Weiqing was already halfway out of the Rest House, almost about to surrender and rescue Little Four, preventing him from crashing into the ground; at that height, free falling would severely injure or kill him.

“Weiqing, no need!” Lin TianAo grabbed hold of him, barely stopping him at the last second from surrendering.

Han Bing’s thought was almost exactly the same as Zhou Weiqing. When he saw Little Four take out the waterskin and spray out the water, his eyes were ﬁlled with surprise. He had never dreamed that anyone would use such a method to weaken his Frozen Sacriﬁce’s effect, to actually use the effects of his own cold in order to protect himself.

For a Heavenly Jewel Master to have a Spatial Object was very common, usually with food, water and other essentials. However, to actually think of such a plan and execute it at such a critical moment like Little Four, it was not as easy as it seemed.

Even so, do you think you can really escape? Han Bing smirked coldly to himself. Even if he had managed to escape the majority of the explosive blast of the Frozen Sacriﬁce, he had left himself totally frozen and vulnerable by doing so. After all, with the temperature of the Frozen Sacriﬁce, even ordinary water would be frozen as hard as ten thousand year old Xuan Ice, and it would not be easy to escape from that. Furthermore, in his eyes, Little Four’s body should already be frozen stiff, unable to break free.

As long as the block of ice fell to the ground, then Little Four would shatter into pieces together with the block of ice. At the same time, another ice cone formed stealthily, point upwards right to where Little Four would land.

Direct translation of an idiom, basically to kill someone as a warning to the rest

Chapter 86 Han Bing Perishes, Rage of Shen Little Demon!

Just as the entire audience thought that Little Four would perish from that, an unexpected miracle occurred.

The block of ice containing Little Four would fall to a position about three yards from Han Bing, and currently Han Bing did not have any defenses up. In the instant that the block of ice smashed onto the ﬂoor, something happened that no one expected.

Silver light. A bright silver light ﬂashed in that instant, shocking Han Bing. Everything happened too fast, and before he could even ﬁgure out what had happened, the block of ice had already been pierced through by the ice cone. However, at that point, Han Bing could clearly see that Little Four was no longer encased within the ice block.

Han Bing felt a strange cold feeling from his neck, followed by a warm, sticky feel.

He did not feel any pain, but yet, as someone who trained with ice everyday and never felt cold, he suddenly felt a sense of cold overwhelm him. If Little Four was not in the ice, where was he? Currently, he was standing behind Han Bing, frozen in a strange position.

The wings on his back had long disappeared, and a short knife was in his hands, the silver light around it dissipating. Little Four’s expression was ugly, as he shivered unstoppably.

Bright red blood gushed out of the cut around Han Bing’s neck, and as it met the cold air in the stage, a strange sight followed.

As the blood spurted from Han Bing’s neck, it formed little beads of red ice in midair before falling into the ground with a

*ding* *ding* *ding* sound. There was a long cut on his neck, totally severing his windpipe and jugular vein.

Standing there ﬁxedly, there was no despair in Han Bing’s eyes, as he had not even understood what had happened. By the time realisation struck him, darkness had already overwhelmed him, and he no longer held the power of thought.

Up until Han Bing died, he did not even understand what had happened, that he had died to his own overconﬁdence. When he had unleashed his Frozen Sacriﬁce Skill, he had totally taken down his own personal defense. In his eyes, the Four- Jeweled Little Four had no chance of survival.

When Little Four had broken the waterskin and sprayed out the water, the crude beginnings of a plan had already formed in his mind. His Elemental Jewel Attribute was the Spatial Attribute after all, and amongst all the Attributes, the Spatial Attribute Energy was the best at isolating things. When Little Four sprayed out the water, he had already imbued a huge amount of his Spatial Attribute Heavenly Energy within, causing his body to have a small isolated pocket from the ice; adding the Consolidated Wings protection, although he was still frozen stiff, he was still able to move slightly.

Just before the block of ice hit the ground, Little Four had ﬁnally used the Blink skill that he had held for so long. When he did so, he had taken out a small short knife, and that was all he was able to do, just a short simple movement.

In his original plan, he would just strike Han Bing once before surrendering. After all, he did not wish to die, and he was totally left without any more energy. Alas, after accomplishing that attack, he found that he did not have anything left within him to even speak, let alone jump off the stage. However, even he did not expect that his attack had already severed Han Bing’s unprotected neck. Such a result was deﬁnitely not within Little Four’s calculation, nor had he even dreamed of it. If Han Bing had been just a little more careful, even if he had that simple blue shield of light up from before, Little Four would not have succeeded in his attack.

Alas, in this world, there was no ifs, what had happened was not reversible. That was life; that was combat; one could lose one’s life in just a twinkling, a moment of carelessness.

“Han Bing!!” A shrill voice rang out from the Dan Dun Battle Team Rest House, and immediately, a ﬂash of red appeared as a ﬁgure zoomed from the Rest House towards the stage.

A red uniform, red hair, and that look of utter disbelief. When that young lady ﬂew onto the stage and in front of Han Bing, her right hand moved swiftly, striking out at his acupuncture points in an attempt to seal the veins on his neck, using her other hand to cover the large wound on his neck.

Right behind her, the rest of the Dan Dun Battle Team members swarmed up onto the stage. The Fei Li Battle Team members also arrived at the same time; when the shrill shout had sounded out, Zhou Weiqing and Lin TianAo had led the rest of the members onto to stage, surrounding Little Four protectively.

The red haired young lady holding onto Han Bing’s neck was indeed beautiful, both in ﬁgure and face, giving the feel of a valiant beauty. However, at this moment, her eyes were almost dull and vacant in shock, as she stared at Han Bing’s, whose eyes were glazing over as his life blood stained her ﬁngers. She could scarcely believe what was happening before her.

Han Bing’s injury was too severe, so much so that even if a Life Attribute Heavenly Jewel Master were right in front of them, he would still not be able to save Han Bing. With the cut in his neck almost halfway through, his head was as good as severed, and the amount of blood loss was almost already too much.

The red haired young lady quickly passed the limp body in her hands to the team member beside her, before swiftly charging down the stage and to the Rest House beside the Dan Dun Rest House, crying out urgently: “Any of the Heavenly Snow Mountain powerhouses able to use the Resurrection Skill? I, Shen Little Demon, represent the Blood Red Hell, to beg you for a favour to save Han Bing. We will deﬁnitely pay the price required.” Indeed, she was standing in front of the WanShou Empire Rest House. With her power, she knew that with a wound like that, Han Bing had no chance of survival except with a quick use of the Resurrection Skill that only one of the Saint Attributes, the Divine Attribute, had. That was his only chance.

A white clad youth walked out from the Rest House, tall and lanky and rather suave looking, with deep blue eyes. Looking at the anxious Shen Little Demon, he said coldly: “Miss Shen, I’m afraid you’re looking for the wrong person. We are the WanShou Empire Representatives, not from the Heavenly Snow Mountain.”

Shen Little Demon was feeling rather urgent in her heart. After all, she knew that the WanShou Empire was considered an enemy to all the other Empires of the continent, and the Heavenly Snow Mountain were just as proud. However, this had to do with Han Bing’s life, and she did not pay heed to their status of enemy.

Biting her lip, she suddenly knelt down in front of the youth. “Please, I beg you, help Han Bing. I, Shen Little Demon, have never begged anyone in my life, and I am begging you now.” The white clad youth furrowed his brow, saying: “Miss Shen, you do not have to do this, it is useless. You are also from the Great Saint Lands, and you should have heard that the Resurrection Skill isn’t so easily used. Not only is the price to pay of it unbelievably high, even if used, its success rate is less than a third. More importantly, only the purest direct bloodlines of the Heavenly Snow Mountain is able to use such a Skill. Unfortunately, our WanShou Battle Team does not

consist of such a member, nor would we stoop to bringing a member of the direct lineage of the Heavenly Snow Mountain to join the Heavenly Jewel Tournament.”

Shen Little Demon stared at him dazedly, before slowly getting up and staggering back a few steps, her face pale and ashen. Turning back abruptly, she looked towards Han Bing, who was now in Lan Feng’s hands, not a sign of life in his limp body…

“NO….NO….!” She howled in rage and agony.

In this short period of time, a row of judges from the ZhongTian Skill Storing Palace had descended upon the stage, standing between the two sides as a barrier.

Shen Little Demon charged onto the stage once more, holding Han Bing as she glared ﬁxedly at the Fei Li Battle Team members. “Kill all of you… I will deﬁnitely kill all of you. You have even dared to kill Han Bing… I, Shen Little Demon, swear that from today onwards, the Blood Red Hell will be mortal enemies with the Fei Li Empire.”

On the side of the Fei Li Battle Team, Zhou Weiqing said mockingly: “What? Are only the lives of your Blood Red Hell worth? It was that Han Bing who tried to kill Little Four ﬁrst, alas his own training was lacking, thus he was the one to fall instead. You … so imposing! Do you think we’re really scared of you?!”

If not for all the powerful judges between them, perhaps both sides would have started an all-out battle.

Little Four and Han Bing’s ﬁght, could be said to be an unexpected, almost unbelievable turn of events. Not only was the entire audience staring stunned, their jaws wide open in shock, even the powerhouses on the VIP Stage were also staring amazed, speechless at the sight before them. This was deﬁnitely beyond everyone’s expectation.

For a member of the Blood Red Hell to be killed here, especially one so highly ranked and important to them, with a great future ahead… more importantly, for him to be killed by the Fei Li Battle Team… without any Great Saint Lands background… this had deﬁnitely made history in all the many years of the Heavenly Jewel Tournament being held.

Even in the previous top four ﬁghts, as all the battle teams were from Great Saint Lands, they were more restrained. Though there were heavy injuries, there was usually no death. As such, having an important member die like this, was deﬁnitely not something that had happened in the past Heavenly Jewel Tournaments.

“Enough, Silence.” Two simple words spoken from above, appearing as if a bomb exploding downwards. Everyone on the stage felt a sudden dizziness, before their head cleared.

The two words were spoken by Shangguan Longyin, who was still seated calmly on his seat. Furthermore, when he said those words, although the entire area heard him, only those on the stage were dazed by the power held within the words, yet they did not affect the other audiences or even the other battle teams in their Rest Houses. Such power and control was indeed impressive.

The entire scene was growing out of control, and as the Head Judge of the entire Tournament, he had to take control. Shen Little Demon turned her head towards the VIP Stage, her eyes still ﬁlled with hate. Han Bing’s death was a huge blow to her; in truth they weren’t particularly close, but they were both from the Blood Red Hell, and that meant everything to her.

In the past hundred years, although there were many outstanding talents in the Blood Red Hell, the top calibre ones were still very limited. In this generation, only Shen Little Demon and Han Bing were considered the very cream of the crop.

Without question, if he could have continued on his path, Han Bing would deﬁnitely have become at least a Heavenly King Jewel Master or even greater. The Blood Red Hell had spent much time, effort and resources to develop him for so many years, and no one would have ever expected him to perish in the Heavenly Jewel Tournament in a historic event. How could Shen Little Demon not feel hate? Shangguan Longyin said passively: “The Tournament is fair, with rules set in place. Fighting is ﬁghting, and anything can happen; you can kill, or you might be killed at any time. If you do not wish to continue the tournament, you can withdraw from it; otherwise, if you want to continue, you will have to follow the rules. In that ﬁght, the Fei Li Battle Team has the victory. The current score is 2-0 in favour of the Fei Li Battle Team.”

Shen Little Demon took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. She turned her hate-ﬁlled eyes back onto the Fei Li Battle Team members, and as she spoke through clenched teeth, the strain in her voice was clearly audible. “Let’s continue the ﬁght. Everyone, return to the Rest House.”

This was the beneﬁt of having the Heavenly Jewel Tournament held in the ZhongTian Empire. When it was necessary, they deﬁnitely had the power to dominate the scene. After all, no other Empire besides perhaps the WanShou Empire would dare to challenge the ZhongTian Empire, and even they might think twice. As the Dan Dun Battle Team members returned to the Rest House, still constantly glancing at the Fei Li Battle Team with hate ﬁlled glares, the Fei Li Battle Team also returned to the Rest House.

Xiao Yan placed his hands on Little Four, pouring Fire Attribute Heavenly Energy into him to aid him in driving out the massive amount of cold in him. The colour slowly returned to his face, and he was soon ﬁnally able to speak. With a bitter smile, he said to his solemn companions: “I… I’m sorry… I didn’t know this would happen…”

Little Four was clear about the repercussions of his actions in killing Han Bing. There was no longer any hope of placating the Dan Dun Battle Team, and everything from now on would be a life and death battle, perhaps even more so than against the Bai Da Battle Team. Although they were now leading two to zero, it was still a ﬁght to the death against a seeded team, backed by one of the Great Saint Lands! Also, this would totally ruin Zhou Weiqing’s plan, as the Dan Dun Battle Team would deﬁnitely give it their all from now on. More importantly, Han Bing’s death had also given the Fei Li Empire an unbelievably powerful enemy. Even though the Dan Dun Empire was very far from the Fei Li Empire, but even if they just gave the Bai Da Empire some support, it would cause huge problems for the Fei Li Empire. Lin TianAo shook his head, saying: “It’s not your fault. He was the one who wanted to kill you ﬁrst, and you were just retaliating the best you could. How could that be counted as an error? However, I think we should surrender now.”

“No!” Drunken Bao said agitatedly. “Leader, how can we give up like this? 2-0! That’s such a huge advantage! Next round, Xiao Yan and I will do our best, who knows we might actually be able to win this!”

“Shut up!” Lin TianAo snarled in a low tone, as if an enraged lion. Drunken Bao was instantly silenced.

Lin TianAo continued solemnly: “Things have already proceeded far beyond Weiqing’s plan. Without a doubt, a two to zero score is a huge advantage, and it is very tempting indeed as the match point. However, have you considered how dangerous the other ﬁghts will be? All of you can sense the killing intent from that young lady leader of the Dan Dun Battle Team, and the rest of their members as well. For her to be the leader, you can just think how powerful she will be… deﬁnitely much higher than Han Bing.”

As for Han Bing, I estimate that he had only broken through the six Jeweled cultivation level not long ago. That is to say, his Heavenly Energy was probably at the twenty fourth stage, just reaching the Heavenly Xu Energy Stage, but perhaps not fully mastering the power of the Heavenly Xu Stage yet. If not, Little Four could not have lasted as long as he did. However, the young lady leader is different; she has deﬁnitely mastered the profound secrets of the Heavenly Xu Energy. No matter which

one of us has to face her, even myself at full power, we would deﬁnitely be killed. I am the Leader of this team, and having brought you all here, I have the duty to bring you all back intact. I do not want the same thing which happened to the Bai Da Battle Team to happen to us.”

As he spoke up to this point, an imposing aura extended from Lin TianAo’s body. “You all do not have to continue speaking. I have made up my mind. The honour of our Empire is important, but you are all my brothers and sisters… your lives are just as important in my heart.”

Drunken Bao, Xiao Yan, Little Four, even Crow and Ye Paopao, all lapsed into silence. They did not know how to rebut Lin TianAo. After all, what he said was true; the Dan Dun Battle Team were now ﬁlled with rage, hate and venom. What would occur next was not a tournament or competition, but a battle to the death!

The awkward silence lasted for a short time, then all of a sudden, Zhou Weiqing broke it. In a low tone, he said: “Leader. All of you should calm down a moment. In truth, things are not as bad as it seems.”

Everyone turned to him instantly, hope in the rest of the team members eyes, though Lin TianAo’s expression was unhappy. However, he was still Zhou Weiqing’s Follower after all; if it were any other person who had said that, perhaps he would have already struck out in anger.

Zhou Weiqing continued: “Wait… hear me out ﬁrst. In the following ﬁghts, it is without question that Shen Little Demon will participate in the 2v2 match. In her enraged state now, perhaps even berserked state, she is deﬁnitely terrifying. As such, we will have deﬁnitely have to surrender for that ﬁght, or whoever ﬁghts in that will deﬁnitely be wounded or killed. However, just like you said Leader, that Han Bing had only just broken through to the six-Jeweled cultivation level. Since he was most likely the second position in their entire team, and from their reaction, an important member of the Dan Dun Battle Team, that means that besides him and Shen Little Demon, all of the others will be of the Five-Jeweled cultivation level.”

After listening to Zhou Weiqing’s words, Lin TianAo’s face eased up a little, before furrowing in thought once more. Nodding to him, he motioned for Zhou Weiqing to continue. Zhou Weiqing continued: “Besides the 2v2 match, there are still 2 more 1v1 ﬁghts. Their most powerful leader, Shen Little Demon, can only ﬁght one of that. That means… in one of the 1v1 matches, the opponent will have to send a Five-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master. Although they will be trying to kill us, and unleash their full powerful, at the same time, this means that their emotions will be out of control, and they will lack the calm and coolness… perhaps affecting their ﬁght and giving us a chance.”

“As such, in my estimations, we still have a chance. In the next 2v2 ﬁght, we should directly surrender, and for the upcoming two 1v1 ﬁghts, we will give up the Shen Little Demon ﬁght, and focus on the other one. That will be the key to victory.”

When Zhou Weiqing spoke, he was calm and quiet, the cold intelligence in his eyes affecting all his companions, even Lin TianAo.

Drunken Bao was the ﬁrst to approve. “Weiqing is right. We still have a chance! That Shen Little Demon might be extremely powerful, perhaps even more so than all of us combined… but this is a tournament with rules after all. She can only ﬁght two of the next three rounds. When we meet her, we can just surrender before the ﬁght, and she cannot do anything about it no matter how powerful she is.”

The rest of the team members also nodded in agreement. However, as for Lin TianAo, although he was moved by Zhou Weiqing’s argument, and everything about it was extremely logical, he still had a nagging feeling of uneasy worry.

Zhou Weiqing continued: “According to my estimations, Shen Little Demon is currently in an enraged state. When we surrender the third 2v2 ﬁght, she will likely continue staying on the stage. After all, we are already at match point. As such, for the fourth ﬁght, I’ll head up and surrender. As for the ﬁnal ﬁght, it will be up to Drunken Bao or Xiao Yan. I’ll leave it to the two of you to discuss who will take that last ﬁght.”

By the time he had ﬁnished his peace, the judge had already started calling for the next ﬁght to begin and for both sides to send out their members. The members of the Fei Li Battle Team did not have more time to think about it, or perhaps because Zhou Weiqing had already proven himself in his strategies earlier, and no one protested as he stepped forward.

“Third ﬁght, we Fei Li Battle Team surrender.” Seeing Shen Little Demon and another member of the Dan Dun Battle Team step up eagerly onto the stage, Zhou Weiqing immediately shouted out from the entrance of their Rest House.

The judge started momentarily, before recovering himself and announcing that in the third ﬁght, the Dan Dun Battle Team won by default, and the overall score being 2 to 1, still in the favour of the Fei Li Battle Team.

Shen Little Demon’s face was icy cold, as if she could freeze the surrounding atmosphere. She motioned to the other team member beside her to leave, but she did not make a move, standing proudly right there.

Zhou Weiqing smiled, nodding to his companions before saying: “Look, my predictions were right. I’ll head up now.” As he said that, he did not wait for anyone else to say anything, scooping up Fat Cat from his bosom and placing it on his seat before leaping directly onto the stage.

All of a sudden, Lin TianAo seemed to realise something, and he exclaimed out loud: “No, that’s not right!” Alas, it was too late for him to stop Zhou Weiqing.

Xiao Yan and Drunken Bao had been arguing over who would take the last ﬁght, and they turned to Lin TianAo curiously. Xiao Yan asked: “Leader, what’s wrong?”

Lin TianAo’s expression was extremely ugly as he said urgently: “That Shen Little Demon did not get off the stage, and Weiqing could have easily surrendered on this 1v1 match just like he did with the 2v2 match, from here. Why did he need to get up onto the stage?”

Hearing his words, a sick realisation dawned upon all the other members, and their faces changed as well. Ye Paopao said hesitantly: “Could it be… Weiqing was afraid that Shen Little Demon would suddenly change tactics and swap someone out, so he went up to conﬁrm… ?”

Lin TianAo furrowed his brow before saying: “That had better be the case… otherwise… if he tries to ﬁght such an enraged Shen Little Demon, it could spell the end of him!”

Alas, what none of them knew was that the moment Zhou Weiqing leapt forward onto the stage, all he was thinking of was Shangguan Bing’er. In his mind, he was muttering to himself. Future Father-in-law, watch and see now. I will deﬁnitely prove to you that I am capable of protecting Bing’er, and I am truly worthy of her. A team leader from the Great Saint Lands… she is my perfect whetstone. Seeing Zhou Weiqing jump onto the stage, Shen Little Demon started for a moment, a hint of confusion in her eyes. She had seen Zhou Weiqing’s ﬁghts previously, and this young man with multiple attributes had deﬁnitely given her a lasting impression. More so, she knew that he was only at the Three- Jeweled cultivation level.

Why would the Fei Li Battle Team send out a Three-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master? Could he be here to surrender again? At this point, Shen Little Demon suddenly broke out in cold sweat. She was after all a very intelligent person, and although she had not thought things through like Zhou Weiqing earlier, that was because she was consumed by her own rage. In that instant, she realised that the Fei Li Battle Team deﬁnitely had at least one more Five-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master, and that her own team was deﬁnitely backed into a corner.

It was only up to this point that she realised that perhaps the Dan Dun Battle Team had a chance to lose… at the same time, she knew that the root cause had been their own arrogance.

Without question, the Dan Dun Battle Team’s true power was far beyond that of the Fei Li Battle Team. If they had treated the ﬁght seriously, the Fei Li Battle Team would not have any chance at all. Everything else aside, just Han Bing and Shen Little Demon should have each taken a 1v1 ﬁght easily, and with the two of them in the 2v2 ﬁght, how could they possibly lose?

Yet, things had indeed progressed unexpectedly. Perhaps it had just been too long since any of the seeded teams had been even challenged, and they had ‘given’ away the ﬁrst ﬁght too easily. As for the second ﬁght… it could only be said that lady luck was just on the Fei Li Battle Team’s side. As she thought up to this point, Shen Little Demon, who had previously been in an almost berserk emotional state, suddenly calmed down. Looking at Zhou Weiqing coldly, she said: “You are here to surrender?”

Hearing her words, the judge couldn’t help but look towards Zhou Weiqing. From his perspective, it was deﬁnitely the best for Zhou Weiqing to surrender now.

However, Zhou Weiqing shook his head towards her, saying: “Why would I surrender? I would like to try out the power of the Blood Red Hell for myself. Fei Li Battle Team, Zhou Weiqing, may we have a good ﬁght.”

Shen Little Demon started a little again, her eyes narrowing as the cold in her expression increased further with killing intent. She knew that this was perhaps not the decisive battle of the two teams, but for Zhou Weiqing to actually be willing to ﬁght her, she actually held a slightly better impression of the Fei Li Battle Team. At least, they had the guts to ﬁght. Still, that did not mean she would pull her punches. “Dan Dun Battle Team. Shen Little Demon. May we have a good ﬁght.”

Feeling the strong killing intent from Shen Little Demon, the judge quickly proclaimed. “Let the ﬁght begin.” As soon as he said that, he quickly retreated, leaving the stage to the two combatants.

Hearing Zhou Weiqing’s challenge to Shen Little Demon, all the members of the Fei Li Battle Team stood up, even Drunken Bao and Xiao Yan stopped arguing about the last ﬁght.

Crow muttered to herself: “He is doing this for the honour of Fei Li, he is telling us that no matter an enraged Great Saint Lands, it doesn’t mean they are undefeatable. Weiqing, well done indeed.”

Crow’s voice was naturally loud, and though she was muttering to herself, all the members of the Fei Li Battle Team could hear her clearly. Besides Lin TianAo, all the others revealed excited looks, their ﬁsts clenched as they stared unwaveringly at the stage.

Lin TianAo stood at the back. Only he could guess what Zhou Weiqing was truly thinking. After their talk the other day, he could guess that Zhou Weiqing was doing so to prove himself to the Heaven’s Expanse Palace, to show himself worthy of Shangguan Bing’er! After all, Lin TianAo knew Zhou Weiqing’s character well; he could and would do anything to achieve victory, and not just to do something merely for reputation.

On the VIP Stage, Shangguan Tianxin saw that Zhou Weiqing was actually challenging Shen Little Demon, and a strange look ﬂashed in his eyes. Immediately, he turned to Shangguan Longyin and said softly: “Longyin, you head down there. If that Zhou Weiqing’s life is actually in danger, you have to stop the ﬁght, even if it breaks the rules of the Tournament. What is that little fellow trying to do? He is actually challenging the top member of the Blood Red Hell? Is he trying to seek death? Sigh… I can’t let him die like this, otherwise how can I account to Second Brother.”

In the next moment, Shangguan Longyin disappeared. As for where he went, nobody knew.

“He should have conﬁdence in doing so, or he would not risk it.” A cold, clear voice suddenly sounded out in Shangguan Tianxin’s ear. For someone to speak to him like this, with that address and tone, there weren’t that many people in the entire ZhongTian Empire who could do so. Shangguan Tianxin turned his head to look, and saw that Shangguan Xue’er, cold and expressionless as ever, had somehow arrived beside him. Seeing him turn to look at her, she bowed slightly towards him in greeting, saying: “Third Uncle.”

Shangguan Tianxin said with great interest: “Oh, you’re here, Xue’er. Come, take a seat, tell uncle what you meant by this Zhou Weiqing having conﬁdence. What could he possible have to rely on in order to defeat a six-Jeweled powerhouse from a Great Saint Land?”

Even though Shangguan Xue’er was speaking to her uncle, her face did not change, as she said passively: “In order to persuade Father to allow her to be with Zhou Weiqing, Bing’er ﬁnally told him the secret about his Elemental Jewels and his Attributes. That Zhou Weiqing… actually has an Alexandrite Cat’s Eye.”

Hearing her words, even Shangguan Tianxin couldn’t help but be visibly moved. “Alexandrite Cat’s Eye? The same type that Big Brother and Second Brother has? Oh? It looks like that little fellow has a fourth Attribute then. Besides the Darkness, Spatial and Wind Attributes that he has shown thus far, what is the last one?” Hearing Shangguan Tianxin’s question, Shangguan Xue’er’s expression and eyes turned a little weird. Abruptly, a sound barrier formed swiftly over the two of them, ensuring they could not be eavesdropped upon. “It is not one more, but three more. Father has deemed this to be top secret, and besides you and Big Uncle, no one else can know about this. Zhou Weiqing has six Attributes, and they are the Darkness, Spatial, Wind, Lightning, Evil and Time Attributes.”

“What?!” Despite being the emperor of the largest Empire in the entire continent, Shangguan Tianxin was still unable to restrain himself upon hearing Shangguan Xue’er’s words, exclaiming out loud as his jaw dropped, disbelief in his eyes. “Time?! He actually has that heaven-defying Attribute, Time! Didn’t Big Brother say before that only the Passion Valley has such an attribute? Amongst all the Five Great Saint Lands, the Heavenly Demon Sect is known for their Evil, or as they call it, Demonic Attribute, and the Darkness Attribute, their direct bloodline or core disciples will usually have those two Attributes. As for the Blood Red Hell, they are known for their Fire and Light Attributes. Yet, the Passion Valley only has a single Attribute, but just the Time Attribute alone has brought them to the third position, behind only our Heaven’s Expanse Palace and the Heavenly Snow Mountain. Our Heaven’s Expanse Palace Elemental Jewels are rather unique, known for our multiple attributes, though we do not have any of the Four Great Saint Attributes, but our core disciples usually has the Alexandrite Cat’s Eye Jewel. In this point, we are unique amongst all the Great Saint Lands, and Big Brother even has the three Greater Attributes, Light, Spatial and Life. Added to the fact that we have the top Consolidating Equipment Masters in the world, and the greatest Legendary Set passed down from generations, the Boundless Inﬁnitum Set. Only because of all

that, we are able to be equal with the Heavenly Snow

Mountain.”

As he said the words Heavenly Snow Mountain, his brow furrowed for a moment, then he gave a gentle sigh before continuing: “In terms of personal strength, that Heavenly Snow Mountain Master is truly the strongest in the world, and he has that reputation for a reason; not just his cultivation level alone, but also because he has both the Spirit and the Divine Attributes, the only person with two Saint Attributes… Even so, none of the Great Saint Lands, not even our Heaven’s Expanse Palace nor the Heavenly Snow Mountain has anyone with a six Attribute Alexandrite Cat’s Eye Jewel. No wonder you said that he has something up his sleeve that can give him conﬁdence. Now I’m really interested in seeing what he can do.”

As he spoke up to that point, Shangguan Tianxin suddenly realised something, turning to Shangguan Xue’er and asking curiously: “Xue’er, you said he also has the Evil Attribute? Does he have any connections to the Heavenly Demon Sect?” Shangguan Xue’er shook her head and said: “According to Bing’er, he doesn’t, because Bing’er was actually the Sacriﬁce during the Awakening of his Demonic Attribute.” As she said that, she couldn’t help but subconsciously glance angrily at Zhou Weiqing.

By this moment, the ﬁght on the stage had already begun.

As soon as the judge shouted for the ﬁght to begin, both Zhou Weiqing and Shen Little Demon moved at the same time. Surprisingly, none of them even took the time to activate any Skills or Consolidated Equipment, instead as charging towards each other instantly.

For those in the audience well versed in combat, they could understand why Shen Little Demon did that. As an outstanding Heavenly Jewel Master, it was ingrained within them to not waste any Heavenly Energy, to use it most efﬁciently. Furthermore, as one’s cultivation level grew, Heavenly Energy would slowly and steadily improve one’s body. By reaching the six-Jeweled cultivation level, Shen Little Demon’s innate strength, speed, agility, toughness, ﬂexibility and even explosive power was already considerable, even without any usage of Consolidated Equipment or Skills. In choosing to attack directly, she would gain the option of ﬁrst strike, conserving energy, while still conﬁdent of being able to react and use any Skills or Consolidated Equipment when necessary.

Seeing Shen Little Demon’s actions, Lin TianAo’s already black face grew even uglier. Without question, he knew that she had already calmed down, otherwise she would not ﬁght like that… and that did not bode well.

On the other hand, most of the audience did not understand why Zhou Weiqing would also follow suit. Even though he was a Strength Type Heavenly Jewel Master, he was after all still only at the three-Jeweled cultivation level. Under any ordinary circumstance, any six-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master, even without the Strength Attribute, would still be stronger physically than a three-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master, and of course faster.

Both sides clashed explosively almost instantly. Shen Little Demon’s attack was straightforward and direct, her body arched like a bow, with her right ﬁst like her arrow as it lambasted straight ahead.

What Zhou Weiqing used was not his ﬁst, but instead his palm. His right hand spread out, slapping forth towards her ﬁst. In terms of speed, he was clearly slower than Shen Little Demon. There was some correlation between speed and strength, as the faster an object was, the more power it held within. Before the two had clashed, it was clear that Shen Little Demon already held the upper hand. This was the sheer gap in physical attributes of a High Level Heavenly Jewel Master against a Low Level one.

However, soon, an astonishing sight greeted the audience.

*PENG*!

When Shen Little Demon’s ﬁst crashed savagely onto Zhou Weiqing’s palm, in most of the audiences’ eyes, Zhou Weiqing should be sent ﬂying, to be followed by a ﬂurry of attacks from Shen Little Demon.

But the truth was not as they expected.

When ﬁst met palm, Zhou Weiqing stood there as if his body was nailed right into the ﬂoor, not even swaying as he accepted the blow. On the other hand, Shen Little Demon’s charged was forcibly stopped in its tracks. As she had been in mid charge, her entire body was even lifted off the ground for a split second by the inertia, before she landed back down on her feet. Zhou Weiqing’s right palm quickly moved back, and the audience could clearly see that his entire hand, all the way up to his arm, was rapidly expanding, shredding his right sleeve into bits.

In their ﬁrst clash, it was unbelievably the three-Jeweled Zhou Weiqing who had taken the advantage.

As the participant, Shen Little Demon had the clearest experience of it. When her ﬁst had smashed into Zhou Weiqing’s palm, she had been ready for him to use any skill. Unexpectedly, he had not unleashed any Skill or Consolidated Equipment as well, yet she felt as if she had been hitting a brick wall, a mountain, as if all the strength behind her blow had been useless.

In all the previous ﬁghts, Crow was the only one amongst the Fei Li Battle Team who had shown her considerable physical strength. Zhou Weiqing had taken more of a support or control role, or to use his archery and sheer number of powerful Skills in order to obtain victory. At this moment, he would no longer conceal his strength, unleashing the full might that had even defeated Crow. From the start, he had already exerted full force! 请赐教, literally means please teach me. It’s a common phrase used between respected opponents, usually translated as Please guide me or Please share your experience with me etc. In this case, I changed it a little to ﬁt the setting.

Chapter 87 Controllable Demonic Change

Facing Zhou Weiqing’s incomprehensible strength, Shen Little Demon was inevitably stunned for a split second. Alas, Zhou Weiqing was a master of seizing opportunities, and just that split second had allowed him to grab hold of her ﬁst as his palm grew larger.

A huge suction force emitted from Zhou Weiqing’s palm, enveloping Shen Little Demon. She felt as if his palm was like a black hole, the depths of hell, and her own massive store of Heavenly Energy acted like a hole opened in a dam, gushing out towards his hand.

It was almost visible as well, as white light sprang forth around her body, encasing her as it seemed to rush towards Zhou Weiqing’s right hand in a strange movement. At the same time, his entire body seemed to expand as well.

The entire uniform on his upper body was blown apart, revealing his well muscled torso. That was not the only thing, as his left arm and hand followed his right, growing immensely as well. Black and grey tiger tattoos seemed to appear, moving around like waves across his skin. The ‘King’ word and its domineering aura appeared around his forehead at the same time, shimmering in all its glory.

“DEMONIC —— CHANGE ——!”

Shock rippled through the entire audience, the Rest Houses, and even the VIP stage, as everyone burst out into exclamations.

In the Fei Li Battle Team Rest House, the nervous team members jaws dropped, their worry and concern turning into shock.

Even Lin TianAo did not know about Zhou Weiqing’s Demonic Chance, and did not expect that he would actually dare use it in public!

At this point did the members of the Fei Li Battle Team realise why the Little Witch from the Heavenly Demon Sect had approached Zhou Weiqing. Not only did he have the Demonic Attribute, he even had the capability to Demonic Change! In the Kalise Empire Rest House, Little Witch, who had been watching the ﬁght intently, had stood up abruptly the instant she saw Zhou Weiqing’s right arm and right hand grow larger and grapple Shen Little Demon.

As the Holy Girl of the Heavenly Demon Sect, she was deﬁnitely the authority on the Demonic Attribute amongst the entire audience, even compared to the powerhouses on the VIP Stage. At that point, no one else identiﬁed what Zhou Weiqing had done, but she had known that he had actually been able to separate the effects of the Demonic Change onto only his right arm. That proved that he… had actually managed to control his Demonic Change!

How was that possible? Without any training method for the Demonic Attribute, he was still able to control his Demonic Change? Just a while ago, when he had fought with Ming Wu, he did not have such a capability!

At that point, Little Witch remembered what Ming Wu had told the Sect in his report about Zhou Weiqing, and how he had been full of praises of him. Now, the facts had proven that Ming Wu was indeed correct, and her father’s trust of him in sending her to speak with him was indeed the right decision. They had already ‘overestimated’ Zhou Weiqing’s talent, and he had once again surpassed all their expectations and judgement. In this moment, Little Witch’s emotions were in an inﬂux.

On the VIP Stage, when Shangguan Xue’er saw Zhou Weiqing using the Demonic Change, she too couldn’t help but stand up. Although she wasn’t a member of the Heavenly Demon Sect, as the ﬁrst in line to be the next Heaven’s Expanse Palace Master, her insight and understanding was no lower than her uncle beside her.

“Controlled Demonic Change! He can actually control his Demonic Change!” Shangguan Xue’er muttered to herself, a complicated look in her eyes.

Shangguan Tianxin was also staring at Zhou Weiqing, his heart aﬁre with thoughts. He knew what a Controllable Demonic Change meant… if what Bing’er said was true, and that Zhou Weiqing had not joined the Heavenly Demon Sect, to be able to control his Demonic Change meant that this young man was a First Generation Heavenly Demon Master. Only such a person would able to do so without any inheritance and training from others. That also meant his Demonic Attribute was deﬁnitely one of the Four Great Saint Attributes, not only a guess of their own! More importantly, if he and Bing’er had children in the future… wouldn’t they be second generation Heavenly Demon Masters? The Heaven’s Expanse Palace had always been limited, and vexed, by the fact that they were the only Great Saint Lands without a Saint Attribute, and this youth actually had two! This could be a perfect opportunity!

At that point, even though he was an Emperor, Shangguan Tianxin was still staring at Zhou Weiqing with an envious eye.

The ﬁght on the stage raged on despite all the various thoughts from the audience.

Indeed, Zhou Weiqing had immediately activated his Demonic Change as soon as the ﬁght started. He had no choice. After all, he had witnessed Han Bing’s power for himself; Little Four being able to kill Han Bing was truly due to a lot of luck and a lot of underestimation on Han Bing’s part. This also let Zhou Weiqing know that he could not underestimate anyone from the Dan Dun Battle Team, after all they were a seeded team backed by a Great Saint Land.

As the Leader of the team, Shen Little Demon was deﬁnitely more powerful than Han Bing. She was also at the six-Jeweled cultivation level, but just like what Lin TianAo had guessed, her Heavenly Energy was already deep into the Heavenly Xu Energy stage. Under such a circumstance, Zhou Weiqing knew that he would not have any chance at all normally. The only chance he had was to keep surprising her, to maintain the upper hand and suppress her til he achieved victory.

As such, he had seen Shen Little Demon charge forth towards him, Zhou Weiqing had decided on a plan instantly. He immediately unleashed the Demonic Change, and as soon as they clashed, he quickly used the Devour Skill as well.

Shen Little Demon had much more Heavenly Energy, and much stronger and higher quality as well, than those of the Forest Direwolves he had Devoured in the ﬁrst time he used the skill. When he used it suddenly, he felt a massive surge of Heavenly Energy enter his body through his hands, almost overwhelming him.

However, Zhou Weiqing did not stop, forcing himself to continue draining her. He knew clearly that he had to seize this opportunity when she had been taken off guard; with the difference in cultivation level, it would be extremely difﬁcult for him to do so again, and it wouldn’t last long as well. He deﬁnitely had to make full use of this.

In the Demonic Change state, not only was his physical prowess massively boosted, his senses and reactions were also boosted considerably. Seizing the opportunity that Shen Little Demon was Controlled by him, his Demonic right leg ﬂickered out like a ﬂash of lightning towards her in a savage kick.

Since they had already killed one person, they were already mortal enemies, and killing a second would not make a difference. As he lashed forth with killing intent, he knew that if his Demonic Right Leg, which had gone through its second Evolving, managed to kick an unprotected person, not to mention Shen Little Demon, even Shangguan Longyin would be hard pressed to take such a blow.

The audience could only see that Zhou Weiqing’s right leg seemed to warp into a blur of black light, lashing out like a whip towards Shen Little Demon’s abdomen.

Naturally, Shen Little Demon was shocked to realise her Heavenly Energy was being Devoured, but after a short period of being stunned, she quickly made the right choice in that critical moment. A dark-gold brilliance shone forth from her body, forcefully breaking Zhou Weiqing’s grip on her right ﬁst; at the same time, it blocked Zhou Weiqing’s incoming foot.

Indeed, it was the Consolidating Equipment God Protective Aura. A God Tier Consolidating Equipment Master production! *CRASH*

An astonishing sight greeted the audience. Everyone knew how powerful the Consolidating Equipment God Protective Aura was, almost considered invulnerable for its level. What most people didn’t know was that if the power levels between two sides were more than twelve stages apart, it was still breakable. Of course, even if it were beyond twelve stages apart, it was still able to block the majority of the attacks. Yet, Zhou Weiqing’s Heavenly Energy was much lower than Shen Little Demon’s!

Even so, when Zhou Weiqing’s right leg smashed savagely into her abdomen, especially the foot which had unknowingly warped into the black hook, it collided with her Consolidating Equipment God Protective Aura, and an earsplitting shattering sound rang throughout the air.

In the one-chi radius of Shen Little Demon’s Consolidating Equipment God Protective Aura which had been kicked by Zhou Weiqing, cracks actually appeared! At the same time, she was sent ﬂying back into the air almost twenty metres by the impact of the blow.

“That’s pure physical strength?!” Shangguan Tianxin actually stood up in surprise, staring at Shangguan Xue’er. “After the Demonic Change, the body is actually able to produce such terrifying physical strength?!”

Towards Shangguan Tianxin’s question, Shangguan Xue’er could not give a reply. She too was unbelievably shocked. That was a six-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master’s Consolidating Equipment God Protective Aura! Yet, it had almost been destroyed by a kick from Zhou Weiqing?

What a terrifying strength indeed.

Let alone any outsiders, even Zhou Weiqing was startled by his own kick. He had not expected his kick to be able to cause cracks in the Consolidating Equipment God Protective Aura. However, he also learned something new, that the Protective Aura wasn’t an invulnerable shield, and it had a certain limitation.

With that thought in mind, Zhou Weiqing did not hesitate to press his advantage. After that kick had landed, his right leg struck back down onto the ground hard, making use of the rebound force to send his body ﬂying forward at blinding speed. Earlier, at the start of the ﬁght when he had charged Shen Little Demon, he had concealed his speed in order to trick her, and this was the time to unleash his full speed. Within the blink of an eye, he had caught up to her ﬂying body, and at this moment, her Consolidating Equipment God Protective Aura had also dissipated.

The current Zhou Weiqing looked very strange indeed, his muscles bulged almost unnaturally, his black hair ﬂoating behind him as his bloodshot eyes glowed in an eerie light. His arms were much larger than any ordinary humans, almost disproportionate, with his hands almost looking like huge tiger paws, with two inch long nails having grown out in a gleaming sharpness that made one shiver. Not only was his top clothing totally disintegrated, so was his right leg pants, and the thicker right leg of his was totally black, longer than his left leg in a strange unevenness. At the moment, only his ‘private’ area and his left leg was covered!

If it had been any other situation, perhaps everyone would have been laughing or ridiculing Zhou Weiqing. Of course, now, especially after that terrifying kick, who would dare laugh at him? Such a level of Demonic Change was unheard of, not even Little Witch had seen something like that before. Standing at the entrance of the Kalise Rest House, her emotions were so agitated that she almost couldn’t control herself. At this point, Zhou Weiqing’s stock in her heart had been raised several notches to an all-new high. Little Witch, or as her real name, Wu Yuehan, could at least conﬁrm one thing, that Zhou Weiqing’s controllable Demonic Change was even more powerful than her own father’s! Her father! The current Heavenly Demon Sect Master! Furthermore, how could she not recognize the skill that Zhou Weiqing was using, to be able to hold Shen Little Demon in place and absorbing her Heavenly Energy, wasn’t that the famed Devour Skill of the First Founder of the Heavenly Demon Sect? He was the ﬁrst Sect Master of the Heavenly Demon Sect, and at that time, he had been one of the top powerhouses in the world, matching even the Heavenly Snow Mountain Master at that time. During that period, the Heaven’s Expanse Palace was far below its current power and status.

No matter how hard Wu Yuehan tried to calm her breathing, her heart raced despite all her efforts.

From Ming Wu’s description of Zhou Weiqing and his Demonic Change, she knew that his Demonic Change had deﬁnitely evolved. At that moment, she resolved that no matter what price they to pay, she would not let him get away from her.

Back at the stage, Zhou Weiqing had caught up to Shen Little Demon in mid air. Her protective shield had disappeared, and she had just ‘awoken’ from her stunned state.

I can’t remember if they mentioned her actual name before, but as I recall, this is the ﬁrst time. 巫(Wu)⽉(Yue)寒(Han) is the name, with her surname 巫 actually meaning witch, that’s probably the source of her nickname. Her name would be actually Witch Frozen Moon in English! As the Consolidating Equipment God Protective Aura dissipated, a bright red protective heart mirror appeared in front of her chest. It was decorated with a simple but enchanting purple-gold carvings on the border, with a large metallic gem in the center. Shen Little Demon’s Heavenly Jewels also released at the same time, showing her six Red Jade Physical Jewels. Similar to Han Bing, she had the coordination Physical Attribute.

As a thick red light shone from the protective heart mirror, it enveloped her entire body, staining it in a layer of red. After releasing her Consolidated Equipment, it was too late for her to use any Skills, as Zhou Weiqing had already reached her.

Shen Little Demon shoved outwards with both hands, as a solid-looking white glow burst forth from her palms, striking out at Zhou Weiqing.

The four main stages of Heavenly Energy were the Heavenly Jing Energy, Heavenly Shen Energy, Heavenly Xu Energy and Heavenly Dao Energy. The difference between Heavenly Jing Energy and Heavenly Shen Energy was being able to release it out of the body, while Heavenly Xu Energy was able to go a step further and use it in direct ranged attacks.

Without question, Shen Little Demon’s cultivation had already reached the Heavenly Xu Energy stage. Her thick heavy Heavenly Energy pressed down upon Zhou Weiqing like a mountain range smashing down upon him.

At the same time as she activated her own attack, the red protective heart mirror burst out in a sudden glow. Zhou Weiqing could clearly sense the atmospheric energy in the air around gathering towards Shen Little Demon at an insane rate as she drew it all in.

Forcefully compete with his own Heavenly Energy? No matter what, Zhou Weiqing knew he would never be a match in that front, not even in the Demonic Change State. The gap between their Heavenly Energy was just too huge to be overcome in such a way.

In a ﬂash of silver light, Zhou Weiqing’s body vanished. In the next instant, he reappeared right behind Shen Little Demon, almost pressing up close next to her. Shen Little Demon’s reaction was undoubtedly fast, but even so she was still unable to prevent Zhou Weiqing from placing his palms on her shoulder.

Once again, that terrifying energy drain of his Devour Skill started up, and Shen Little Demon’s body shuddered as she felt her strength leaving her.

“Get lost!” She shouted angrily. Just as she was about to burst forth with an explosive strength to break free of his grasp, all of a sudden, her body froze for an instant, the gathered Heavenly Xu Energy breaking out of her control causing her to be unable to unleas it.

The audience could see that a green light had shot forth from Zhou Weiqing, causing the white light which had gathered around Shen Little Demon to vanish.

Naturally, that was the Fetters of Wind, the trusty control skill that had time and again proven its worth to Zhou Weiqing. Although the effect of the skill was short, almost negligible, due to their massive difference in power levels, it was still sufﬁcient to prolong the time for which the Devour Skill could drain her Energy. It was after all an extremely highly rated Control Skill! After releasing the Fetters of Wind, Zhou Weiqing did not stay still behind her back and rest on his laurels. He was clear that with Shen Little Demon’s cultivation level and power, unless he landed a good kick with his right foot, it would be extremely difﬁcult to injure her.

At the same time, being so close to Shen Little Demon to Devour her energy, he was not in position to use his right leg to kick her. After all, when he entered the Demonic State, his right leg was now ‘misshapen’, and was unable to bend as easily. Although he could still move it around, under such a close proximity, he was unable to move it into position to kick her properly.

Yet, Shen Little Demon’s reactions were just too quick. If he had not appeared right next to her, he would not have been able to hit her at all. As such, Zhou Weiqing naturally chose the safer route of guaranteeing the strike, and using Devour.

At the same time, a thick blue glow emitted from Zhou Weiqing’s palms, and with an accompanying explosion, both of them were forced apart.

When the Heavenly Lightning Shock hit, it was able to disrupt the connection between a Heaven Jewel Master and his Consolidated Equipment, forcing the Consolidated Equipment back into its Physical Jewel state. This was the real reason why Shen Little Demon had not been able to ﬁnish her attack. However, as the gap between both their cultivation levels were just too great, and the protective heart mirror Consolidated Equipment around her chest was a God Tier Consolidated Equipment, as such, the Heavenly Lightning Shock only managed to disrupt the short blade in her hands, causing it to

disappear.

Next, a mass of silver light appeared in front of Shen Little Demon, before warping into a silver-tinged black hole with immense suction. It was Zhou Weiqing’s Spatial Rend.

Shen Little Demon quickly spun towards in, punching forward as a white light solidiﬁed around her once more. With a loud explosion, the entire Spatial Rend was actually destroyed in that single punch.

Originally, Shen Little Demon had calmed down in order to ﬁght, but now her temper had been riled back up again. As the top genius in the entire Blood Red Hell, especially under a circumstance of being six-Jeweled against a three-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master, she had still been forced into such an awkward position, even to the extent of having no choice but to use her Consolidating Equipment God Protective Aura to save her own life. That was truly a huge insult and humiliation to her.

A thick gold light shone abruptly from her body, rising forth into midair, illuminating the entire stage in a brilliant gold. Under the gold light, Zhou Weiqing felt a slight burning sensation on his body.

Light Attribute. Indeed, Shen Little Demon’s Elemental Jewel was an Alexandrite type Jewel; just like Shangguan Tianxin had said, the direct bloodline of the Blood Red Hell was exactly with the Fire and Light Attribute.

The skill that Shen Little Demon was using was called Protection from Evil, and had a weakening effect upon Darkness and Evil Attributes and their users. At the same time, it would also give a boost to the senses of the user. It was deﬁnitely one of the best Skills against someone of Evil alignment, especially a Demonic Change user.

Alas, what Shen Little Demon did not know was that Zhou Weiqing’s Demonic Change was rather unique, not only was he a First Generation Heavenly Demonic Master, which meant his Demonic Attribute was at equal to the other Saint Attributes, his Demonic Change had also evolved once! If she had possessed the Divine Attribute, perhaps it would have a much greater effect, however just her Light Attribute alone did not have the expected large restriction effect on Zhou Weiqing’s Demonic Change.

After the short clash, Zhou Weiqing realised how powerful the Devour Skill truly was, and the pleasant surprise it had granted him.

Previously, when he had Devoured some of Shen Little Demon’s Heavenly Energy, he felt as if his entire body was ﬁlled to the brim, his meridians almost hurting from the excess energy. However, as he continued unleashing Skills, this external Energy was quickly transformed to his own energy, ready for his usage. That was to say, although Zhou Weiqing had used several Skills thus far, in addition to maintaining the Demonic Change, the energy for all that had actually been ‘provided’ by Shen Little Demon. As for his own personal Heavenly Energy, it was still at his peak condition!

Without even considering the fact that the Devour Skill could actually aid in improving his cultivation level, just considering the amazing ability it brought in combat was already unbelievable, and was a huge boon to his ﬁghting capabilities indeed. Zhou Weiqing knew that the Rating of this Devour Skill was likely even more powerful than his Absolute Delay! “AHHHH——!” After Shen Little Demon had destroyed the Spatial Rend in a single punch, she did not chase after Zhou Weiqing. Instead, she spread out both her arms wide, giving a shrill cry into the air.

A miraculous sight followed. As her Heavenly Energy burst forth, the white light around her seemed to diminish a little, but in the instant, the white glow of the Protection of Evil Skill enveloping Zhou Weiqing was strengthened. At the same time, a piercing red glow burst forth from her Protective Heart Mirror.

Fire. Indeed, it was ﬁre. The Red, Gaseous Heavenly Energy that burst forth was like fuel to the ﬂames that shot out of the mirror. At the same time, the glow in the air intensiﬁed into a brilliant gold, and as it mixed with the red ﬂames, turning them into a gold hue.

As the temperature in the air grew searingly hot, Zhou Weiqing was given a huge shock, cursing to himself in his heart. Damn, it’s a Double Attribute Fusion Skill!

To any Heavenly Jewel Master, the difference between Six and Seven Jewels, as well as Nine and Ten Jewels, both were major thresholds or bottlenecks in terms of a huge leap in power. For the bottleneck between six to seven Jewels, besides the difference in Heavenly Energy, both quantity and quality, as well as number of Jewels, the biggest difference between them was actually if the Heavenly Jewel Master had more than a single Elemental Attribute; if so, it was the hallmark where they would be able to make use of Fusion Skills. Of course, at the Zong Stage, a Heavenly Jewel Master was usually only able to Fuse two skills. As for the difference between nine and ten Jewels, that difference would include being able to Fuse Three Skills and more. Of course, that was if the Heavenly Jewel Master had the required Attributes.

As for Fusion Skills, they were usually all self-created, depending on which Elemental Attributes the Jewel Master had.

Of course, Heavenly Jewel Masters who had multiple Attributes were extremely rare; as such, it was also rare to see such Fusion Skills.

Originally, when Tang Xian had told Zhou Weiqing that he would only be able to start somewhat protecting himself when he reached the six-Jewel stage, it was because he had so many Elemental Attributes. As such, she estimated that he would be able to start creating and using his own Fusion Skills at the Six- Jeweled cultivation level. However, this Shen Little Demon in front of him was only at the six Jeweled cultivation level, and not yet the seven Jeweled level, yet she was already able to use a Fusion Skill! In comparison to someone like Zhou Weiqing who had no background, the background na support that a Great Saint Land could provide was clearly shown here.

In truth, there were two reasons why Shen Little Demon could actually use this Fusion Skill. Firstly, she had mastered the Heavenly Xu Energy stage and its changes in quality of Heavenly Energy, and secondly, and more importantly, it was actually making use of her God Tier Consolidated Equipment!

In that instant, Shen Little Demon’s body seemed to hover in midair, while Zhou Weiqing fell hard onto the stage.

The current massive shield of light ﬁlled with ﬂames enveloping the entire stage from above the air was called Holy Flames of Light, and was one of the famed skills of the Blood Red Hell.

Shen Little Demon’s movement had been too quick, and she had expended much of her power in using this skill, sacriﬁcing all efﬁciency in order to get it out as quickly and as powerful as possible to kill this pesky Zhou Weiqing in a single blow. Furthermore, no one had expected her to be able to use such a Fusion Skill at this point, and even the hidden Shangguan Longyin was not able to react in time.

It’s actually Holy Guard or Holy Ward in direct translation At that point, when the Holy Flames of Light had rose into the air, a layer of dark-gold light sprang out from Zhou Weiqing’s body, forcefully blocking the Holy Flames of Light from destroying him. It was his own Consolidating Equipment God Protective Aura.

Zhou Weiqing had been left with no choice. Facing such a huge area of effect skill with that kind of power, he could not think of anything else besides the Consolidating Equipment God Protective Aura which could save his life. Even though he was in the Demonic Change state, he could not possibly use his body to take a full on blow from such a Skill, that was probably even more powerful than any ordinary seven-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master’s.

Alas, the Holy Flames of Light was just too powerful, being a Fusion Skill. Furthermore, Shen Little Demon’s cultivation level was originally already more than twelve levels higher than Zhou Weiqing. The moment Zhou Weiqing’s Consolidating Equipment God Protective Aura appeared, crack started appearing on it, and it looked like it was just going to delay the inevitable. In terms of quick thinking and reaction in the midst of combat, Zhou Weiqing was deﬁnitely extremely strong. At this instance of life and death, he almost subconsciously reacted to save himself.

His Demonic Right Foot slammed hard onto the ground, and the ensuing massive explosion caused a shockwave that pushed back the surrounding ﬂames momentarily. At the same time, Zhou Weiqing’s body sank down into the stage; his foot had smashed the ground of the stage below him, causing him to drop down into the depths of the stage. At the same time, he lifted up the dual legendary hammers which had appeared in his hands, protecting his head from above.

The Demonic Change added on to his two Legendary Dual God Strength Hammers, it could be said that Zhou Weiqing was at the utter peak of his power at that point. Furthermore, the ﬂames were sweeping across the stage, before rising into the air, and not heading downwards. No one had expected Zhou Weiqing to use such a strange method to avoid the brunt of the ﬂames.

Including Wu Yuehan, the few who were almost about to take action to save him stopped in their tracks as soon as they saw the Dark Gold Light and the explosion. The Holy Flames of Light had come quickly, but they also disappeared quickly. After all, it was a powerful skill somewhat beyond Shen Little Demon’s current level, and it took a huge toll on her Heavenly Energy, especially since she had ignored any efﬁciency.

Never in her wildest dreams that Zhou Weiqing would actually also use the same tactic as she did earlier, to use the Consolidating Equipment God Protective Aura; more so, that weird and unexpected move of burrowing down into the stage which had ultimately saved his life from her sure-kill shot.

In that moment, Shen Little Demon was suddenly struck by uncertainty. Was this fellow really a three-Jeweled Heavenly Shi Jewel Master? From the start of their ﬁght, Zhou Weiqing had already used Darkness, Evil, Spatial, Wind and Lightning, ﬁve attributes! Furthermore, two of them were greater attributes, and that wasn’t even considering the Evil Attribute. More importantly, he had also managed to use the Heavenly Demon Sect’s famed(notorious) Demonic Change. As if that wasn’t enough, he had also unleashed a God Tier Consolidated Equipment!

Shen Little Demon was certain that even amongst all the Five Great Saint Lands, she would not be able to ﬁnd another three- Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master equal to him. However, despite all the thoughts and doubts in her mind, her attacks did not waver or slow in any way.

Although Zhou Weiqing had temporarily saved his life by dodging from the Holy Flames of Light, that had also left him stuck in the middle of the ground, totally surrounded by tough diamond-rock, with no place to escape.

Earlier, the Consolidated short blade which had been expelled by Zhou Weiqing’s Heavenly Lightning Shock reappeared once more in Shen Little Demon’s hands. She did not use any other Consolidated Equipment, as her Heavenly Energy was already frighteningly low. Besides the huge expenditure from the Holy Flames of Light, just Zhou Weiqing’s two usage of the Devour Skill had already taken almost twenty percent of her Heavenly Energy.

As the short blade slashed through the air savagely, a huge mass of ﬂames forming the shape of a knife formed in front of it, smashing downwards towards Zhou Weiqing.

Just like Han Bing’s focus on the Cone of Cold, Shen Little Demon also had a Skill that she focused most of her attention on; and it was the skill she was using right now, Blaze Cut. Its range was almost twenty yards, and it held an impressive piercing power behind the unbelievable heat. As for how this Blaze Cut Skill was used, it was one of the secret arts of the Blood Red Hell, with only those of direct lineage could learn. It wasn’t just Storing the Skill, but also the method of using it and everything down to the type of Consolidated Equipment short blade.

As the Blaze Cut slashed downwards, Zhou Weiqing leapt up from the hole he was in. At the same time, he threw both the hammers in his hands towards Shen Little Demon.

The smiling and crying face symbols on the massive dark- gold hammers were very clear, but both hammers were currently looking very different from each other.

On the huge hammer ﬂying ahead, it was glowing with a thick silver-green glow; while the one ﬂying behind had its usual dark-gold hue. One front, one back, they ﬂew at breakneck speed accompanied by a whistling sound as it cut through the air.

This was the beneﬁt of the immense physical strength of Zhou Weiqing when in his Demonic Change state.

When a person’s strength reached a certain point, just physical strength was sufﬁcient to accomplish many things, and was almost not inferior to ordinary Stored Skills. Furthermore, what Zhou Weiqing had thrown was after all Legendary Consolidated Equipment!

After throwing the hammers, Zhou Weiqing did not follow through with them, as if he was giving up on his Legendary hammers. Instead, he just landed beside the hole he had created. His body leaning forward, he stood hard on his left leg as a pivot, bringing his entire body almost at a horizontal position in line with the ground, while his pitch-black right leg was lifted right into the air.

The strange hook formed at his right foot seemed to glow in a strange, almost demonic, light.

In mid air, the glowing silver green hammer with the crying face symbol ﬂew right towards its target. No one else knew it, but this was currently the true weighted hammer of the set.

Zhou Weiqing had used his archery training as a basis for throwing the hammers, and would deﬁnitely not miss.

Shen Little Demon could have easily moved her attack aside, allowing the Blaze Cut to avoid the hammers and continue towards Zhou Weiqing. However, would she actually do such a thing?

The answer was clearly no.

Zhou Weiqing had already given her too many surprises. Furthermore, the hammers he threw out were after all God Tier Consolidated Equipment. Any God Tier Consolidated Equipment was deﬁnitely extremely powerful, and had their own hidden secrets. Furthermore, it was clear that this ﬁrst incoming hammer of Zhou Weiqing’s had some sort of Fusion Skill of his own as well.

Indeed, that silver-green coloured glow around the hammer represented the Silver Emperor Spatial Rend; the Fusion Skill which combined the Silver Emperor Wing Slash and the Spatial Rend to form one of the Silver Emperor’s most destructive skills.

Of course, the reason why Zhou Weiqing could use this Fusion Skill had nothing to do with the six or seven Jeweled cultivation level bottleneck. When he had Stored those Skills, they had came with the ability of Fusing together to form the Skill – one of the Silver Emperor’s innate abilities… it could be said that he had Stored the Fusion Skill of the Silver Emperor. Although the expenditure of Heavenly Energy was immense, it was still an amazing ability especially at his three-Jeweled cultivation level. Moreover, he had used his Legendary Hammer in order to help improve efﬁciency and increase its power as well!

The Legendary Hammers were able to help him reduce almost half of his expenditure of any Stored Skill, and increase the power by almost double. Compared to even some ordinary God Tier Consolidated Equipments, this hammer showed why Legendary Sets were even more so highly desired.

Of course, Shen Little Demon did not know all of that, but even with what she could observe, it was enough to prevent her from letting the hammer get through to hit her, and she allowed the Blaze Cut to clash with it instead.

A deafening explosion once again shook the entire Plaza, raining ﬁre as it spread out in amazing pyrotechnics. In theory, the Blaze Cut couldn’t possibly be more powerful than a Fusion Skill consisting of two Ten-Star Rated Skills, but the difference between the two Heavenly Jewel Masters’ cultivation levels was just too great.

In that clash, the Blaze Cut had dissipated, while the ﬁrst legendary hammer of Zhou Weiqing also fell down to the ground, the Silver Emperor Spatial Rend totally expended. However, the other hammer, with the smiling face symbol, which had been right behind, had by now reached Shen Little Demon unhindered.

To Shen Little Demon, it seemed like this hammer did not have any skills imbued within. However, she did not dare take any risks; she did not attempt to parry it with her short blade, instead keeping it away and pushing out with both her hands. Instantly, a huge surge of Heavenly Energy expelled out of her palms, blocking the hammer.

Although Shen Little Demon’s Blaze Cut had clashed with the ﬁrst hammer from a distance, she was still able to sense the terrifying weight of it, as well as the sheer power behind it. As such, facing this other hammer, she braced herself with all her might.

This was indeed another of the twin hammer’s tricks.

*Poof* The hammer was indeed knocked back, and Shen Little Demon’s entire power was unleashed into midair, but she did not feel any weight or attack behind it at all!

Even with a power and cultivation like her own, striking out like that into nothingness and losing her balance was indeed no a good feeling. Her body stumbled forward, her entire balance disrupted. If not for her considerable skill and control, just that misuse of power could have caused her to vomit blood and sustain a severe internal injury.

However, even though she barely managed to control herself, she also lost the opportunity to continue unleashing an attack on Zhou Weiqing. At the same time, she could clearly sense that she had not been unaffected by that, feeling her movements slow down.

Indeed, although the second hammer did not seem to have anything behind it, it actually had a hidden Skill imbued within! There was only one skill, and it was the Absolute Delay! With a loud *Peng* sound, Shen Little Demon landed on the stage, with that misuse of power and being affected by the Absolute Delay, it was truly a miracle that she remained uninjured, but she still wasn’t able to fully control herself and smashed down onto the stage. Despite her protective Heavenly Energy, she was still dazed momentarily.

In the eyes of the audience, Shen Little Demo had been struck down by the hammer.

By now, not only were the members of the Fei Li Battle Team gathered around their Rest House entrance; even the members of the Dan Dun Battle Team on the other side were also doing the same, all of them tensed and nervous as they watched the battle unfold before them.

No one, not even Lin TianAo, could have imagined that Shen Little Demon, a top genius from the Blood Red Hell, at the six- Jeweled cultivation level, could actually be suppressed by Zhou Weiqing. That was even after she had unleashed that powerful Holy Flames of Light!

With a quick ﬂip, Shen Little Demon jumped back from the ground. However, the Absolute Delay made her feel like she had lost her rhythm, feeling extremely awkward as if she weren’t in her own body. No matter how she circulated her Heavenly Energy, she was unable to shake that strange feeling. As such, when she stood up, she was still not in a proper form with perfect balance, facing directly into Zhou Weiqing who was already poised in that strange position of his.

The thing that drew her attention instantly was deﬁnitely that right leg of his which was lifted high up in the air. Earlier, it was just this right leg which had almost destroyed her Consolidating Equipment God Protective Aura. Currently, it was her ﬁrst time examining it closely, and she ﬁnally could clearly see that his right leg had actually turned into a strange black hook, and that hook was now actually shining with a strange light.

Black, Grey, Blue. Three colours swirled around the black hook, forming a warped looking ball of light. Zhou Weiqing’s entire body was trembling, as he stood there supported on his single leg.

Chapter 88 Scorpion Tail Hook! Dark Demon God Lightning!

When Shen Little Demon, struck by the Absolute Delay as she was, saw the three coloured ball of light at Zhou Weiqing’s right leg, the shock in her heart was even more overwhelming than when she realised he had so many Elemental Attributes.

Just like how she had used a Dual Attribute Fusion Skill above her level earlier, she could clearly tell that Zhou Weiqing was somehow using a Triple Attribute Fusion Skill!

This should have been impossible! A sight that should never appear on his body! After all, he was only at the three Jeweled cultivation level… and only a Heavenly King Stage Jewel Master should have been able to use a Three-Attribute Fusion Skill!

The difference between Three Jewels and Ten Jewels was an immense gap, practically insurmountable. Furthermore, Zhou Weiqing’s Heavenly Energy was only at the beginning of the Heavenly Shen Energy stage, he was just too far from being able to unleash a Triple Attribute Fusion Skill! What he had done was absolutely against the natural order of the Boundless Mainland; even if he was in the Demonic Change State, that should never happen! More importantly, that Skill on Zhou Weiqing’s right leg hook actually gave Shen Little Demon a life threatening feel, although she was more than three Jewel cultivation levels above him.

Why? How can this be possible?!

The Absolute Delay was still in effect, and added onto that, Shen Little Demon was almost involuntarily slightly dazed by her shock.

She was not the only dazed one. At this moment, the entire Plaza was deadly silent, even the common audience somewhat understood that this ﬁght happening in front of them was, or should be, impossible. They did not know what was the Demonic Change, nor did they understand the implications of a Triple Attribute Fusion Skill; but what they did know was that the gap between a three-Jeweled and six-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master should be insurmountable. Yet, it seemed like the three-Jeweled Zhou Weiqing was actually having the upper hand now… what was going on indeed?

However, for the audience to be stunned, it would at most cause them to miss some exciting ﬁght. Alas for Shen Little Demon, it would have much more dire implications. His body leaning forward, the current Zhou Weiqing did not give off a human feel, almost as if he were a bloodthirsty wild beast.

The black ‘King’ word on his forehead was shining with an almost blinding brilliance, as his thickly muscled arms were also covered with the brilliant lights from his Alexandrite Cat’s Eye Elemental Jewels and Icy Jade Physical Jewels.

Amongst them, the greatest change in looks was the three Alexandrite Cat’s Eye Jewels around his left wrist. Currently, the three Jewels were glowing individually with different colours, following the three colours of the light ball around his right leg hook; grey, blue and black respectively. As for his Physical Jewel, it sped around his wrist rapidly with a misty feel.

The tiger tattoos rippled around Zhou Weiqing’s body in a strange pattern, as his bloodshot eyes stared ﬁxedly at Shen Little Demon; his entire aura felt like a massive black tiger ready to pounce.

A series of explosions seemed to burst from right within Zhou Weiqing, and a grey mist emitted from him, with the hint of a blood mist mixed within. A pained expression ﬂickered across his face, but his entire body tensed forth and in the next instant, he spun forward; the raised right leg smashing savagely towards Shen Little Demon.

That ball of light around Zhou Weiqing’s right foot seemed to warp the very air itself, causing several strange mirage illusions as it was expelled from Zhou Weiqing’s foot spinning ahead towards Shen Little Demon. It did not seem to move extremely fast, but as soon as it parted from his foot, Shen Little Demon’s body was suddenly stained with a layer of grey, as if her own body was drawing the glowing tri-coloured ball of light towards herself.

Shen Little Demon had quickly recovered from her moment of being dazed, and an intense glow shot out from her eyes. This was a critical moment of life and death, and it was also the last second of the Absolute Delay’s three-second effect on her.

Taking an abrupt deep breath, Shen Little Demon burst out in a brilliant bright light. At the same time, her left hand struck the Protective Heart Mirror at her chest, and a thick yellow-gold light shot out explosively from the heart mirror, seemingly drawn to the red light, before the two mixed together and struck out towards Zhou Weiqing’s tri-coloured ball of light like a golden ﬁre dragon. Indeed. This tri-coloured ball of light was the new Skill that Zhou Weiqing had just Awakened… his new Demonic Skill… Or perhaps more accurately a three Attribute Fusion Skill, the Dark Demon God Lightning!

This was the ﬁrst time that Zhou Weiqing had even attempted activating this Skill. However, even though he had never used it before, he did not know why but as he had been planning his attacks against Shen Little Demon, he still felt a strange conﬁdence in it, placing it at a position of utmost importance to deal his ﬁnal blow. He somehow felt that this was deﬁnitely the most powerful skill in his current arsenal.

At the same time, Shen Little Demon was also pitting everything she had into the ﬁnal clash; as she struck her Protective Heart Mirror, she vomited out a mouthful of blood as she drew deep into her own potential to the maximum.

If one were to compare Consolidated Equipments, no one could even come close to the Heaven’s Expanse Palace. After all, being situated in the Heavenly Jewel Island, they pretty much controlled all the top Consolidating Equipment Masters of the entire continent, and also a vast amount of top quality materials. Although the Blood Red Hell was also one of the Great Saint Lands, it was still extremely difﬁcult for them to gather an entire Legendary Set of Consolidated Equipment.

In fact, despite her cultivation level, Shen Little Demon only had two Consolidated Equipment. One was the red short blade, and the other was the Protective Heart Mirror. The Protective Heart Mirror was the God Tier Consolidated Equipment, and also a part of a Legendary Set, while they were still in the midsts of gathering materials or creating Scrolls to complete her entire Set. As such, she was in the same state as Zhou Weiqing, with her additional Physical Jewels empty and waiting for the Legendary Set Scrolls to be completed before she Consolidated them.

As such, the Protective Heart Mirror on her chest was the strongest Consolidated Equipment she had, also the core of her Legendary Set. Still caught under the effects of the Absolute Delay,Shen Little Demon couldn’t help but expend every last bit of her remaining Heavenly Energy in putting out this ﬁnal attack of hers; this was not just to deal with his Dark Demon God Lightning, but also in hopes that it would be sufﬁcient to kill him off as well. Thus, she did not stint on using every drop of her Heavenly Energy, and more so, her life blood for stimulating the Consolidated Equipment. No matter what, she would do everything in her power to obtain victory. The gold ﬁre dragon looked a lot larger and grander than the tiny little ball that was the Dark Demon God Lightning, and as the two met, it seemed as though the brilliant ﬂames would easily devour the entire ball.

However, when the moment when both skills met, a strange sight occurred.

The unassuming, almost weak-looking, Dark Demon God Lightning abruptly turned a weird grey; and when the two skills met, a large amount of the golden ﬂames vanished. Like a knife cutting through butter, the grey ball sliced right the golden ﬂames before speeding off ahead unhindered.

“… Impossible!” Shen Little Demon couldn’t help but exclaim out loud.

Alas, the facts were undeniably right in front her, no matter how much she willed it so. The gold ﬁre dragon was quickly dissipated by the Dark Demon God Lightning, which did not seem much affected, though its grey light started undulating in a strange pattern that seemed increasingly unstable.

*BANG* A huge explosion signaled the ﬁnal end of the gold ﬁre dragon, and the Dark Demon God Lightning ﬁnally struck right into Shen Little Demon’s hands, which she had put up to block as best as she could. The instant when it struck Shen Little Demon, quick observers would be able to note that the Dark Demon God Lightning was a lot smaller than before, almost a third of what it had been when Zhou Weiqing had ﬁrst ﬁred it out.

After all, their power difference was still three Jewels, and no matter how powerful that Dark Demon God Lightning was, despite it having sucked him dry of every bit of Energy, even the power deep within his blood, it was still not the full and true power of the Dark Demon God Lightning.

Even so, when the one-third of the Dark Demon God Lightning struck Shen Little Demon, its effect was more than sufﬁcient to shock the entire Plaza once again.

Another explosion sounded out as an inexplicable sight appeared on the stage. The explosion did not knock Shen Little Demon away, instead seeming to come from all around her.

Accompanying the sound of the explosion was the Protective Heart Mirror at Shen Little Demon’s chest, which vanished swiftly. Her body seemed to stop, still as a statue as if frozen in place; many small blue lights snaked and crackled around her body, along with a grey-black mist surrounding her. Shen Little Demon’s face was frozen in a shocked expression.

Time itself seemed to freeze as nobody moved… not even the audience. Three seconds passed, as if an eternity had passed, then Shen Little Demon’s body crumpled to the ground. As she did so, her body started shuddering violently, as her skin started to glow in a grey, blue and black light, looking even stranger than the tiger tattoos on Zhou Weiqing’s body.

Even with her Heavenly Xu Energy protecting her body, it was clear that she had not been able to stop the Dark Demon God Lightning from invading her body. No one actually knew what had happened to her.

Zhou Weiqing still stood there on a single foot, maintaining his awkward position. After unleashing the Dark Demon God Lightning, he had not moved a single muscle as well. The tiger tattoos on his body slowly retreated back under his skin, disappearing as his original skin colour returned… and his engorged arms and right leg also swiftly returned to their original state.

It was soon clear that he had broken out of the Demonic Change state, and he was soon covered in a layer of grey light, even shining out from his eyes.

“I… I… I won…” The words were squeezed out from Zhou Weiqing’s teeth, as his now-grey eyes stared at the shocked judge who was standing at the corner of the stage.

Perhaps Zhou Weiqing’s entire display had just been too strange… too powerful. Sensing his gaze on him, the judge felt as if he had been bitten by a venomous snake. With a quick shudder, he recovered his senses.

Looking at the unconscious ﬁgure of Shen Little Demon on the ground, the judge said hoarsely: “Fei Li Battle Team vs Dan Dun Battle Team, Fourth Fight, Fei Li Battle Team is the victor. Final result, 3 to 1 in favour of the Fei Li Battle Team. The Fei Li Battle Team is the overall winner of this match.”

Hearing the judge’s proclamation, Zhou Weiqing’s body stiffened momentarily, then it seemed like the tension drained out of him, and in a *plop* sound, he too dropped down to the ground, gasping for air as he lay down. It was clear that he had only been holding himself up through sheer willpower as he had nothing left in his tank. The judge’s words had also roused the entire audience. Instantly, the surrounding Plaza burst out into a commotion, not just the audience, the other Battle Teams in their Rest Houses, even the members of the VIP Stage. The members of the Fei Li Battle Team and Dan Dun Battle Team reacted almost instantly, as both sides leapt onto the stage as quickly as they could.

Although Zhou Weiqing had somehow snatched victory, it was clear that he was also in dire straits. To be able to unleash a skill that not only took out Shen Little Demon’s ﬁnal blow, but also take her down, how could his current body possibly withstand such an immense power?

Lin TianAo and the others did not even have time to be excited about their win. The only thing in their minds now was whether or not Zhou Weiqing was alright.

As the members of both sides jumped onto stage, all of a sudden, a terrifying aura came pressing down onto the entire stage. Instantly, the members in mid air were suddenly forced down onto the ground, unable to move, or even breathe.

No one knew when or how, but abruptly there was a man standing on the stage. Simple features, deep piercing eyes, and that immense and powerful aura. This man was the one who had been hiding in the shadows for the entire ﬁght, Shangguan Longyin.

Both sides, suppressed onto the ground, looked at Shangguan Longyin in confusion. No matter the Fei Li Battle Team or the Dan Dun Battle Team, none of them could understand why the overall main judge would appear on the stage at this time.

Shangguan Longyin swept his gaze across their faces, before ﬁnally recalling his aura.

“Calm down, both sides. The two of them will not die so easily. As the main judge, I need to verify something to ensure the sanctity and fairness of this Tournament.”

As he said that, he lifted his hand towards Zhou Weiqing, whose body was immediately brought towards him.

Zhou Weiqing was still conscious, but he was unable to make any movement, and could only watch as his body ﬂoated towards Shangguan Longyin. Hearing Shangguan Longyin’s words, the faces of the Fei Li Battle Team changed. Only then did they remember that Zhou Weiqing had just unleashed the Demonic Change… the taboo of the entire mainland!

Since the Fei Li Battle Team understood so quickly, naturally the Dan Dun Battle Team understood as well, their vexed faces turning slightly better. They were all eagerly waiting for Shangguan Longyin to announce that Zhou Weiqing was a heretic from the Heavenly Demon Sect, and the best case scenario would be that he would be put to death immediately, to assuage their anger and hate. How could their Leader possibly lose to such a mere fellow of three-Jeweled cultivation level… this was deﬁnitely a terrible insult and humiliation to not just the Blood Red Hell, but also the entire Dan Dun Empire.

As for Little Witch, who was standing at the entrance of the Kalise Battle Team Rest House, a look of relief crossed her face. Only she truly understood what Shangguan Longyin was doing, and what the result would be.

Zhou Weiqing’s body was drawn directly in front of Shangguan Longyin, and he felt as if the entire air around him was sealed and congealed, causing him to stand there stifﬂy without falling through no effort of his own. He did not feel particularly weak, just totally numb, as if his own body did not belong to him.

Shangguan Longyin pressed his right hand onto Zhou Weiqing’s forehead, his palm shining with a crystalline white; it was the mark of the Heavenly Dao Energy, the ﬁnal stage of the four great stages of Heavenly Energy. Without question, this Shangguan Longyin was at least of the Heavenly King Stage or higher.

In an instance, the white light enveloped Zhou Weiqing’s entire body. Currently, not only the members of the Fei Li Battle Team were watching anxiously, even the ZhongTian Emperor sitting at the VIP Stage, Shangguan Tianxin, as well as his niece Shangguan Xue’er beside him, were equally nervous.

Although Shangguan Bing’er had told them he did not have links with the Heavenly Demon Sect, but he could after all control his own Demonic Change. If Shangguan Longyin discovered that he was truly controlled by the Heavenly Demon Sect, then all their previous plans would be moot, and there would be no discussion of him marrying into the Heaven’s Expanse Palace. Shangguan Tianxin knew that this clansman of his had been impressed by this youth in front of him, and truly cherished such a great talent; at the same time, a killing intent was sparked in his heart. If Zhou Weiqing was from the Heavenly Demon Sect, he would not hesitate to ﬁnish him off. They

could not risk having someone from the Heavenly Demon Sect

inﬁltrate their Heaven’s Expanse Palace by marrying Shangguan Bing’er, that could possibly cause the downfall of their Great Saint Land.

On the other hand, if Shangguan Longyin could prove that Zhou Weiqing was a member of the Heavenly Demon Sect, he would deﬁnitely do everything in his power to protect this youth. Zhou Weiqing’s talent and genius was visible to everyone present, almost to a terrifying level. If such a young man grew up to be their enemy, the Heaven’s Expanse Palace would not be able to sleep in peace! As such, this was a critical moment even for a Great Saint Lands like them.

Several minutes passed, before Shangguan Longyin ﬁnally withdrew his right palm. His tightened face relaxed, and he glanced towards the VIP Stage, nodding imperceptibly towards Shangguan Tianxin.

On his seat, Shangguan Tianxin sat back deeper into his seat, sighing in relief as a faint smile crossed his lips. Since Shangguan Longyin did not ﬁnd any sign of seals or curses of the Heavenly Demon Sect in Zhou Weiqing, that meant that he was truly not of the Heavenly Demon Sect.

He was not suspicious that this was some cunning plan of subterfuge by the Heavenly Demon Sect. After all, with such an outstanding talent like Zhou Weiqing, if the Heavenly Demon Sect actually got their claws in him, how could they not possibly want to control him? Why would they risk revealing him at this point?

If Zhou Weiqing was not of the Heavenly Demon Sect, that meant it was truly an amazing news for the Heaven’s Expanse Palace. With his six Attributes, and the ability to control the Demonic Change… in a few dozen years… heh heh… perhaps the Heavenly Snow Mountain’s slight advantage over the Heaven’s Expanse Palace would no longer exist.

As he thought up to this point, Shangguan Tianxin was put in a very good mood. Although Zhou Weiqing was currently not part of the Heaven’s Expanse Palace, they were deﬁnitely in the advantage. After all, he was Shangguan Bing’er’s man! Looks like I’ll have to have a good chat with Second Brother.

Of course, back on the tournament stage, Zhou Weiqing did not know all the various repercussions his actions had brought about. Currently, he was feeling rather out of sorts, almost vexed. Being treated like a lab rat by Shangguan Longyin, how could he possibly be happy?

He thought to himself. Dammit, when your Father, I, reach the Heavenly King Stage in the future, I’ll also play around with others like that. Hmph Hmph Hmph!

Shangguan Longyin looked towards the Dan Dun Battle Team, saying solemnly: “As the head judge, I have examined him closely. This Zhou Weiqing does not have the seal of the Heavenly Demon Sect, and the Demonic Change he used is a controlled Demonic Change. As such, he is not considered a heretic. The previous ﬁght will still be counted, and the results remain unchanged. As the ofﬁcial judge, I proclaim, the ﬁnal round of the preliminary heats, Third Group Fei Li Battle Team is the victor.”

As he said that, he waved his hands, and Zhou Weiqing’s body ﬂoated back down to land amongst Lin TianAo and the other team members. Shangguan Longyin continued, his voice softening a few notches: “He is totally exhausted, almost to the point of exhausting his life force, and he will need a lot to rest to recuperate. I’m afraid that he will not be able to ﬁght in at least the next round. However, for you all to be able to beat a seeded team in the preliminary heats, you have already made history.”

After saying that, Shangguan Longyin waved his hand again; this time Shen Little Demon was brought in front of him. Although in his heart he was on Zhou Weiqing’s side, he had to go through the motions to help both sides; after all, the Blood Red Hell was also a Great Saint Lands.

As she was brought in front of him, Shangguan Longyin placed a hand on her wrist and extended his senses. Moments later, his face changed; even with his cultivation level, he couldn’t help but reveal a shocked expression, glancing involuntarily to Zhou Weiqing, who was currently being carted away by Lin TianAo and the other Fei Li Battle Team members.

After a short pause, Shangguan Longyin said: “Let the tournament continue,” before jumping off the stage with Shen Little Demon, leading the rest of the Dan Dun Battle Team members towards their Rest House.

…

Back in the Fei Li Battle Team Rest House. The team members carried Zhou Weiqing back to the Rest House, before staring at each other haplessly.

Drunken Bao muttered: “Is… is this real?! We actually defeated the Dan Dun Battle Team? Crow, give me a slap, I want to know if it hurts or not.”

“Good! I love requests like this.” Crow lifted up her hand. Drunken Bao realised his foolishness at the last moment.

“Wait! No! Don’t! Not you… Xiao Yan, you do it.”

Xiao Yan glared at him exasperatedly and gave him a solid kick in the buttocks. “You useless bum!”

Drunken Bao stumbled forward from the kick, and twisting his neck back to look at the foot imprint on his pants, he blinked and said: “Damn, it really hurt. Looks like this isn’t a dream! We… we really won!”

In truth, he was not the only one. Every member of the Fei Li Battle Team still had the feeling like this was not real, like the entire day was a dream. After staring at each other for a moment, their gazes ﬁnally rested upon Zhou Weiqing, and their expressions turned strange.

For Zhou Weiqing to be able to beat Shen Little Demon, he did not only shock all the outsiders, but even their entire team was shocked as well. Three Jewels versus Six Jewels, Upper Level Shi Heavenly Jewel Master against a Upper Level Zun Heavenly Jewel Master… who would have thought?!

The Fei Li Battle Team had indeed beaten the Dan Dun Battle Team, and even more so, it had done so by winning the 1v1 against two of their strongest members. Perhaps it could be argued that Little Four had won entirely by a stroke of luck, but Zhou Weiqing’s ﬁght was deﬁnitely not so. Shen Little Demon had not been underestimating him, and with her anger, she had deﬁnitely been out to kill. Yet, he had been on the upper hand from the start of the ﬁght to the ﬁnish. Such a victory was indeed an honour, or perhaps, almost an impossibility. Even if it wasn’t impossible to duplicate such a feat in the future, it was certainly a feat of history.

Zhou Weiqing was still lying there gasping for breath, his entire body numb and senseless. He could not even speak, and his expression was ugly. Looking at him like that, Lin TianAo and the rest were at a loss on how to help him. They did not dare attempt to use their Heavenly Energy to help him, as they did not know what was the issue; lest they cause more harm than good.

Luckily, Shangguan Longyin had said that Zhou Weiqing was only overly exhausted, and there should be no threat to his life.

Right at that moment, a soft, almost shy, voice sounded out: “Big bros and sis, can I come in please?”

As everyone turned towards the entrance, their jaws dropped as an interesting look ﬂashed on their faces. This shy voice belonged to that young girl who had almost killed them all, Little Witch!

Xiao Yan said slowly, his face full of distrust: “Why are you here? We do not welcome you here.”

Little Witch said, a little aggrievedly: “My intentions are good, I am here to help him.” As she said that, she pointed a small ﬁnger towards Zhou Weiqing. *Swoosh* A white shadow blurred across the room, landing beside Zhou Weiqing. It was Fat Cat, and its eyes were ﬁlled with enmity as it glared at Little Witch, before roaring lightly at her. Little Witch pouted, looking extremely cute. If not for the fact that they had almost died in her hands before, the Fei Li Battle Team members hearts might have melted from that sight.

“Hmph, no good deed goes unpunished. Fine, I’ll leave then. If you want to help him, it isn’t difﬁcult. Slowly infuse some Heavenly Energy through his palms. Zhou Weiqing, I know you can hear me, when they do so, try to use your spiritual energy to activate your Devour Skill, and draw the Heavenly Energy into your body to heal yourself.”

After saying that, Little Witch made a face at them before turning to leave.

Ye Paopao said: “Can her words be trusted?”

Lin TianAo said solemnly: “Previously, when she came to look for Weiqing, she did not seem to have any enmity towards him. We can try it out, but be very careful, only a little at a time. Let me try.” Xiao Yan and Drunken Bao each lifted and supported one of Zhou Weiqing’s arms, and Lin TianAo placed both palms onto Zhou Weiqing’s, carefully circulating his Heavenly Energy to move into the palms slowly.

Naturally, Zhou Weiqing had heard Little Witch’s words. Although he could not move his body, he could still listen and think. He did not know if what she said would really help him, but he decided to give it a try anyway.

What followed next proved that Little Witch was indeed not lying to them. At ﬁrst, Zhou Weiqing did not feel anything, but as Lin TianAo slowly infused his Heavenly Energy into his palms, he felt his arms slowly regaining a little bit of feeling. Soon after, he was able to activate the Devour Skill.

Lin TianAo felt two weak suction forces pulling from Zhou Weiqing’s palms, drawing in his Heavenly Energy. At this point, Zhou Weiqing was just too weak, and the suction force was extremely weak.

As he continued Devouring, Lin TianAo’s Heavenly Energy began to circulate upwards through his arms and to his shoulders, soon reaching the clavicle Acupuncture Point and amazingly it seemed to ignite the Death Acupuncture Point. A slow whirlpool formed once again, and only then did Zhou Weiqing realise that he had been so drained and weak that all his energy whirlpools around his Death Acupuncture Points had stopped moving.

Of course, Little Witch did not know about Zhou Weiqing’s Immortal Deity Technique or its intricacies, but regarding the profound mysteries of the Devour Skill, no one could no better than the Heavenly Demon Sect.

As the Heavenly Energy circulated around his body, reactivating his energy whirlpools and reinvigorating his body, feeling slowly returned to him. By the time his last Death Acupuncture Point had been re- broken through and resumed the spinning of its energy whirlpool, Zhou Weiqing was ﬁnally able to speak.

“Ahhhh, it hurts!” Zhou Weiqing exclaimed out loud. He was almost regretting getting Lin TianAo to infuse Heavenly Energy to recover, as the sheer pain caused him to almost faint. At that point, he almost wished for the numbness to return.

As his Death Acupuncture Points resumed their energy whirlpools, it also allowed him to really examine his body’s situation. ‘Terrible’ was barely scratching the surface of its description now. Not just his body and muscles, his entire meridian system had at least thirty percent totally shattered, while the remaining seventy percent were split and damaged. It was no wonder that Shangguan Longyin had said he was drained of vitality.

Zhou Weiqing was certain that if not for the fact that he had gone through his second evolving, he would likely have self imploded from attempting to unleash the Dark Demon God Lightning, and not having any chance of success.

When he was unleashing the Dark Demon God Lightning, using his right foot hook like that was not an attempt to look ‘cool’, but because he had no choice but to do so. That was because out of his entire body, even in the Demonic Change state, his Demonic Right Leg was the toughest and most resilient.

At ﬁrst, Zhou Weiqing had not thought about that, but when he had started unleashing the Dark Demon God Lightning, he had realised at the last moment that he was in trouble. The terrifying Skill had drained off every last bit of his Heavenly Energy, as if he had become a piece dried beef jerky. That wasn’t even sufﬁcient, and added to it, that huge mass of energy was moving about his body uncontrollably. Zhou Weiqing had to force it into his right leg before he could ﬁnally gain some semblance over it to properly unleash it.

The Dark Demon God Lightning was just too terrifying; not only did it destroy the enemy, it also inﬂicted serious injuries on himself. Although the three-Jeweled level Dark Demon God Lightning was far from its peak, with much room to grow, but it had already done so much damage to himself. One could imagine how truly terrifying this triple Attribute Skill would be in its full power.

Today, the reason Zhou Weiqing had defeated Shen Little Demon could be said to be him digging deep into his potential, using every skill to their maximum.

The most critical skills had been the Demonic Attribute ones. Without the Demonic Change, he wouldn’t be able to hold his own from the beginning. Without the Devour Skill taking effect twice at the start, Shen Little Demon wouldn’t have run out of Energy so quickly. More importantly, it enabled him to sustain his earlier Skill usages, otherwise he would not be able to make use of powerful skills like the Silver Emperor Spatial Rend and the Dark Demon God Lightning at the end.

As for the Dark Demon God Lightning, that was naturally the ﬁnal skill that was critical in achieving victory. With Shen Little Demon’s cultivation level, even though she had been suppressed from the beginning, and even being Controlled by Zhou Weiqing’s Absolute Delay, given enough time to recover and regain her edge, she would be able to ultimately take the victory and perhaps even kill him off. It could be said that he had seized control of the tempo of the battle from the start, and in one fell swoop, through sheer power and surprise factor, controlled it to the end before using that terrifying Dark Demon God Lightning to ﬁnish it. The amount of close shaves he had gone through was unbelievable, and only Zhou Weiqing himself was clear that if he had to go through that once again, he had no conﬁdence in being able to beat her another time.

In truth, from the start, although Zhou Weiqing had challenged Shen Little Demon, he had not even dreamed of winning. If it had been before Shangguan Bing’er leaving, he would still do his best to win the tournament, but he would not ﬁght in such a ‘senseless’ ﬁght where he had to reveal every hidden aces he had to the world.

However, now that Shangguan Bing’er had been taken away from him, it burned inside of him, so much so that he wanted to prove that he had the ability, the right, the qualiﬁcation to marry her. In order to do so, not only did he have to lead his team to a top four post or higher, he had to prove his own personal strength! Without any question, a seeded team like the Dan Dun Battle Team, from the Great Saint Lands, that was his best stage. If he fought with Shen Little Demon and showed his power, even if he did not gain victory, or couldn’t show anything else in the later ﬁghts, it was still enough.

As such, he changed his style of keeping his cards to his chest in ﬁghting. As soon as the ﬁght started, he had used his Demonic Change. In Zhou Weiqing’s original thinking, he would last as long as he could, to suppress her and control her to his best ability, and when he could no longer take it, he would admit defeat.

The plan he had told his companions was indeed his real plan to achieve ﬁnal team victory.

However, the pressure that Shen Little Demon brought upon him was just too huge. Just the Holy Flames of Light alone had almost ‘insta-killed’ him. If not for his quick thinking and reactions, he might have lost his life there and then, and never seen Bing’er again. Under such a circumstance, Zhou Weiqing had been angered, and it sparked his hidden potential within him, ﬁnally defeating Shen Little Demon. This was also an unexpected victory even for himself. With thirty percent of his meridians shattered, and the rest split apart, how could he be in a good condition. The numbness had faded, but besides his head which was still relatively okay, his entire body was a miasma of pain. The way he was trembling, it looked just as bad as the state Shen Little Demon was in.

“Weiqing, how are you feeling?” Lin TianAo asked solemnly. By that time, Zhou Weiqing was covered in cold sweat.

“Dammit, I will not use this skill again unless absolutely necessary. Ahh, it hurts so bad. Quick, knock me out, I can’t stand it anymore.”

Crow lowered her head to him, a blissful look upon her face and she said happily: “Weiqing, before I knock you out, I have to tell you something. We are rich!! Hahahahahahaha!” As she burst out into a loud cackle, she gave him a hard slap. Zhou Weiqing did not have any time to react before he fainted right back into Lin TianAo’s arms.

Rich?!

Only then did the rest of the team remember their bets today. *PENG* Ye Paopao leapt up, smacking his head onto the roof of the Rest House. However, he did not even care about the pain, *Pak**Pak**Pak*Pak* He gave himself four tight slaps.

“Ohhh, I am such an idiot!”

As he slapped himself, he stomped angrily on the ground.

He was not the only one; besides crow, all the rest of the team members had a vexed look on their faces.

Amongst the entire Fei Li Battle Team members, Crow had undoubtedly been the poorest. After winning all the way from the beginning, she had ﬁnally amassed thirty thousand gold coins, deﬁnitely peanuts compared to some of the other team members. However, just in this ﬁnal ﬁght, both she and Zhou Weiqing had bet everything they had, while the rest of the team members had only bet ten thousand gold coins!

None of them had actually truly expected to win, and as such, after they had actually won, it was only after Crow reminded them that everyone remembered in a sudden shock that the odds had been 1 to 100! That was to say… each and every one of them had won a million gold coins!

Well, winning was a good thing, but the problem was… it could have been so much more!

The reason why Ye Paopao had been so agitated was that he had originally been the richest of the team. He couldn’t help thinking that if he had bet his entire fortune of a a million and three hundred thousand gold coins, perhaps after today he would be richer than his entire family! That was a hundred million gold coins! Even for the ZhongTian Empire, it was a considerable sum!

After all, for any common family, their annual expenditure was barely a dozen gold coins. A hundred million gold coins… what kind of notion was that? It was probably enough to purchase a few God Tier Consolidating Equipment Scrolls!

As he thought about that, how could Ye Paopao not feel such a sense of regret.

After this victory, Crow with her thirty thousand gold coins, had jumped from being the poorest member to the second richest, only behind Zhou Weiqing! Of course, the most disgusting fellow was indeed Zhou Weiqing… after all he had bet a whole million gold coins! That was to say, he truly had a hundred million gold coins now!

Everyone turned abruptly to stare at Zhou Weiqing, a green light in their eyes. If not for the fact that Zhou Weiqing had already fainted, perhaps the Fei Li Battle Team Rest House would be bustling in noise and excitement.

Just as the team was suppressing their strange mix feelings of being vexed, excited and happy, all of a sudden, the loud sound of many footsteps sounded outside their Rest House. As they turned to look, they saw Shangguan Longyin leading the Dan Dun Battle Team members to their Rest House, carrying the unconscious Shen Little Demon.

The Fei Li Battle Team’s hearts tightened, and Lin TianAo quickly stepped ahead of his companions, saying solemnly: “The ﬁght is over now, what are you all here for?”

The atmosphere was rather tense. With the top two talents of the Dan Dun Battle Team with one death and one heavily injured, it was almost without a doubt that the enmity between the two teams was at an unredeemable high.

Chapter 89 Three Toxic Venoms

The Fei Li Battle Team and Dan Dun Battle Team faced off each other at the entrance, glaring hard at each other. At this point, the Fei Li Battle Team no longer feared their opponent.

After all, the Dan Dun Battle Team’s top two members were out of commission, one permanently even. As for the rest, they were also at the ﬁve-Jeweled cultivation level. As for the Fei Li Battle Team, with Lin TianAo as the leader, both Xiao Yan and Drunken Bao, who hadn’t taken action thus far, were also ﬁve- Jeweled. Finally, there was Crow, whose strength was more than equal to any ﬁve-Jeweled Master as well. If a ﬁght really broke out, they would not be mere pushovers.

Shangguan Longyin said solemnly: “Hold it. Do not be nervous, they are not here to look for trouble.”

Who was Shangguan Longyin? He was the ZhongTian Empire Skill Storing Palace Master! In the entire ZhongTian Empire, he could be said to be above all but one man. For him to say such a thing, it was deﬁnitely more than a mere guarantee that a ﬁght would not break out.

It was at this point that the Fei Li Battle Team members ﬁnally realised that the Dan Dun Battle Team members had a strange expression on their faces, and that Shen Little Demon was still being carried by them, her entire body shivering violently.

Lin TianAo bowed towards Shangguan Longyin and said: “Yes, Senior Shangguan. Since you say they are not here to cause trouble, may I know why you all are here?”

Both sides had just fought hard, and one of their members had even been killed. If they were here to mediate, no one would believe it.

Shangguan Longyin shifted his gaze towards Shen Little Demon, before saying solemnly: “I have examined Shen Little Demon, but I am unable to tell what Skill Zhou Weiqing used on her.”

As soon as Shangguan Longyin said that, the entire Fei Li Battle Team revealed looks of shock.

Who was Shangguan Longyin? His Heavenly King Jewel Master power aside, he was the Skill Storing Palace Master of the ZhongTian Empire, and could be said to be specialised in Skill Storing. For even him to not be able to recognize the skill, that was almost inconceivable! In that moment, everyone had the same question in their mind – What was that ﬁnal Skill that Zhou Weiqing used?

Alas, currently Zhou Weiqing was still unconscious, and could not give them any answer.

Shangguan Longyin said: “Shen Little Demon was struck by Zhou Weiqing’s Skill; on the surface level, it seems like it is a mixture of three Attributes – Darkness, Evil and Lightning. However, after much examination, I found that it isn’t just merely three different types of energy, but it has formed into three toxic venoms.”

“Three toxic venoms?” Even Lin TianAo’s interest was sparked.

Shangguan Longyin nodded and said: “Any form of energy, when it interacts in a harmful or undesirable way with a human body, will form a type of venom. Simply speaking, for example, when someone is burnt with ﬁre, up to a certain point, they will be affected with ﬁre venom. However, usually Heavenly Jewel Master’s Skills are a lot more direct, either they destroy you, or you block it. For something like this to warp into venom, this is also the ﬁrst time I have witnessed it.” “My guess is that when Zhou Weiqing released this last blow, it was severely weakened by Shen Little Demon. Furthermore, it is likely that at his cultivation level he hasn’t been able to unleash the full power of the Skill. If not, Shen Little Demon would have died already. In any case, all of those factors combined have resulted into this current situation; where her body is now being corroded by all three types of venom, Darkness, Lightning and Evil. Although she isn’t at immediate risk of death, if she isn’t healed, she will eventually lose her life.

“More importantly, these three venoms aren’t working individually, but are somehow intertwined and supporting each other. Earlier, I tried using my own Heavenly Energy to force out the venom, but as soon as I tried it, I had to give up.”

“Even when my Heavenly Dao Energy was infused into her body, the venom reacted instantly. Not only would I fail in forcing out the venom, it would force the venom to kill her off instantly. This is an almost incurable venom without the proper antidote.”

Shangguan Longyin paused at that point, before continuing: “This might sound arrogant, but in the entire mainland, for a venom to be incurable by me, there are at most 2 to 3 others who might have a chance of succeeding. Even if it were the Heavenly Snow Mountain Lord who was here with his Divine Attribute, I doubt he would have the conﬁdence to say that he can deﬁnitely cure this venom. Also, if she dies from this venom, even the Resurrection Skill will not work on her.”

Hearing Shangguan Longyin’s words, everyone couldn’t help but suck in a deep breath. What a vicious venom!

Lin TianAo said: “What is your purpose of coming here then?”

Shangguan Longyin said passively: “Shen Little Demon is from the Blood Red Hell, and is the daughter of my old friend. As such, I have brought her here. As the saying goes, it is easier for the doer to undo what he has done, and only Zhou Weiqing will be able to cure this venom easily.”

Drunken Bao said curiously: “Senior Shangguan, didn’t you say it was incurable?”

Shangguan Longyin said patiently: “Yes, it is incurable. However, the key is that its origin is from a Skill released by Zhou Weiqing. I was watching their ﬁght very closely, and I am very certain that this Triple Attribute Skill of his was not Stored. That is because, with his cultivation level of three Jewels, he will deﬁnitely not be able to use such a Fusion Skill of three Attributes. As such, there is only one other possibility

– that skill is his Inborn Talent.”

“Inborn Talent?” Hearing those words, not only the members of the Fei Li Battle Team, but also the Dan Dun Battle Team, were taken aback.

Shangguan Longyin said: “You all should already know that the skills that Heavenly Beasts have are actually inborn talents. They do not need to go through any Skill Storing or anything like that. However, amongst us humans, there are also a few unique individuals who have something similar to that, with their own inborn talents. One good example is the notorious Demonic Change, which can be considered a type of inborn talent. This skill of Zhou Weiqing’s is deﬁnitely one of the strongest I have ever seen. These inborn talents are usually inherited from their bloodlines, and in this case, although the venom might be incurable to others, it should be easy for him to detoxify her. As long as he uses his Devour Skill to draw away all the venom, not only will it be harmless to him, but it should actually be beneﬁcial towards his own healing.”

Lin TianAo glanced at the Dan Dun Battle Team, who all had strange, conﬂicted expressions on their faces. He ﬁnally turned back to Shangguan Longyin before saying: “That is to say, Senior is asking us to save Shen Little Demon? However, if I am not wrong, the rules of the tournament state that the ﬁghts can be to the death, and it all boils down the ﬁghters, no one has to take any responsibility for any particular death. We have no obligation to save her life, especially since she has also tried to kill Weiqing several times in the ﬁght. I’m afraid that this request… will be difﬁcult…”

After killing Han Bing, he knew that their entire team had already fully angered the Dan Dun Battle Team, being enemies. Since they were already enemies, adding another Shen Little Demon wouldn’t worsen the situation, but if they saved her, who knew if she wouldn’t repay that kindness with revenge. The Blood Red Hell would not have any good will towards them. Under such a circumstance, why should they help save her?

Lan Feng, the Dan Dun team member who had fought against Lin TianAo previously, burst out urgently: “As long as you can save Leader, we will deﬁnitely not take revenge against you outside of the tournament.”

Lin TianAo looked at him, then said passively: “Can you make such a decision? Can you really represent the Blood Red Hell?” Lan Feng was silenced instantly, his face turning red. At this point, Shen Little Demon’s shivering and convulsions seemed to get worse, and no one knew how long she could last. All of the Dan Dun members looked at her with worry, but they did not know what to do. After all, amongst the entire Dan Dun

Battle Team, only Shen Little Demon and Han Bing were actually the inner core of the Blood Red Hell, while the rest were outer members; how could they possibly make a decision on the Blood Red Hell’s behalf. However, one thing was certain, if Shen Little Demon truly died here, they would also be in

trouble when they returned.

At last, Shangguan Longyin sighed and said: “Alright, since this old fellow has already opened his mouth, I must see it through. It is true that they are not able to make such a promise, but what if I make the promise?”

Facing Shangguan Longyin’s impressive presence, Lin TianAo did not back down, instead saying in a neither haughty nor humble way: “Senior, how will you make such a promise?”

Shangguan Longyin said: “I will promise on their behalf, as long as Zhou Weiqing saves Shen Little Demon, it will clear up the enmity between your two teams about Han Bing’s death. If the Blood Red Hell looks for trouble, they will be going against the ZhongTian Empire as well. This way, you can have no problems with saving her right?”

Hearing Shangguan Longyin’s words, the tense faces of the Fei Li Battle Team members ﬁnally relaxed a little. After all, they were merely students in the Fei Li Empire, how could they possibly be truly willing to anger and face one of the Great Saint Lands? Even the entire Fei Li Empire couldn’t afford to do such a thing!

With Shangguan Lonyin’s promise, that meant they had the ZhongTian Empire’s promise, perhaps even the Heaven’s Expanse Palace. They would no longer need to worry about any future outright acts of vengeance from the Blood Red Hell.

This was truly an unexpected piece of good news.

Lin TianAo also let loose a long breath of relief. Just as he was about to agree, Shangguan Longyin continued: “To compensate Zhou Weiqing, give this to him to drink.”

As he said that, he held out a jade bottle towards Lin TianAo. Lin TianAo took the bottle as Shangguan Longyin explained: “This jade bottle contains the juice of the Heavenly Dragon Holy Fruit, it is one of the top healing items in the world, and will be extremely good for Zhou Weiqing’s current condition. If he drinks that, he might even be able to join the future ﬁghts, and also have the energy to help heal Little Demon. At the same time, I can also give each of your team members one free Skill Storing opportunity in our ZhongTian Skill Storing Palace.”

Upon hearing his words, the entire Fei Li Battle Team was stunned. Fortune had fallen into their laps so quickly, none of them could ever imagine Shangguan Longyin giving them such concessions.

Only Lin TianAo still remained calm. He knew deep in his heart that Shangguan Longyin was giving them way too much, promising them reprieve from vengeance in front of the Dan Dun Battle Team… in the ZhongTian Empire, how could he possibly refuse? What was the point of all these other gifts?

Lin TianAo was a stable, careful person, but that did not mean he was stupid. In fact, calmly thinking things through would grant clarity and intelligence to many. After a while, he suddenly realised the true meaning of Shangguan Longyin’s visit – he wanted to ‘court’ them, or to draw them to ZhongTian side. Of course, not all of them, but mainly Zhou Weiqing! After thinking it through, a faint smile appeared on Lin TianAo’s face. This was not a bad thing for them, not just for Zhou Weiqing having good relations with the Heaven’s Expanse Palace, but even the Fei Li Empire would gain much from having good relations with the ZhongTian Empire.

As Zhou Weiqing’s Follower, he naturally had to think of Zhou Weiqing’s position ﬁrst; but as a Fei Li Empire Citizen, he was naturally even happier with such a win-win situation.

He understood that Zhou Weiqing had revealed too much of his talent today, and it was just too astounding. As the saying goes, the trees that grow the highest in the forest will be knocked down ﬁrst, there was always a bad side to drawing too much attention. He knew that with Zhou Weiqing’s character, the only reason he would do something like that was because of Shangguan Bing’er. Alas, if they did not have a strong background, such an outstanding talent could mean an early demise.

The world had never lacked talents, but those who could survive and grow to their maximum heights were few and far between. The thoughts ﬂashed quickly through Lin TianAo’s mind, and he quickly bowed respectfully towards Shangguan Longyin, saying: “Thank you Senior Shangguan for taking care of us. Weiqing is severely injured, could you please aid Shen Little Demon to help her stabilize for a while. We will give him the Heavenly Dragon Holy Fruit juice to hasten his recovery so he can help cure Miss Shen. Is that alright?”

Shangguan Longyin was old and experienced, and he instantly knew that Lin TianAo had accepted the olive branch he had extended. Smiling faintly, he nodded, his favourable impression of this stable young man in front of him going up a notch.

Pinching Zhou Weiqing’s nose, Lin TianAo poured in the Heavenly Dragon Holy Fruit juice and forced him to swallow. However, before he could continue taking action, Shangguan Longyin stepped forward. In truth, he was unable to do anything to stabilize and further help Shen Little Demon; the Dark Demon God Lightning’s venom was just too powerful and overbearing – as soon as he tried to do anything, it would activate. Furthermore, he wanted to get Zhou Weiqing to owe him a favour.

Shangguan Longyin stepped forward to Zhou Weiqing before placing both hands on his body. His hands were suffused with a shimmering white, almost jade like, colour as he spread his Heavenly Dao Energy around, moving around Zhou Weiqing’s body. Under the guidance of the Heavenly Dao Energy, the Heavenly Dragon Holy Fruit juice quickly spread around Zhou Weiqing’s entire body and infused within.

In the entire process, Shangguan Longyin was secretly shocked. Earlier, on the tournament stage, he had examined Zhou Weiqing’s injuries, and knew how heavily injured he was. Yet, at this moment, only a short time had passed, and now that he was examining Zhou Weiqing’s body, he was surprised to discover that his meridians were already starting to heal. It was at a speed that was deﬁnitely beyond any normal rate of healing, even for a Zong Stage Heavenly Jewel Master, perhaps only those who had reached the Heavenly Dao Stage like him could do so.

Such an amazing talent! Shangguan Longyin marveled to himself. Of course, he did not reveal anything in his expression, remaining impassive and cool. In a matter of moments, the Heavenly Dragon Holy Fruit juice had circulated throughout the meridian network of Zhou Weiqing, and a faint fragrance wafted from his body. A white mist rose out from his body, and his laboured breathing calmed down. The Heavenly Dragon Holy Fruit was indeed a rare and miraculous treasure, and in fact, it was an ingredient in some of the God Tier Consolidating Equipment Scrolls.

The Heavenly Dragon Holy Fruit only grew in very particular speciﬁc environments. Dragons were very rare in the Boundless Mainland, and they were usually only found in deep in the mountains. An adult dragon was comparable to a Heavenly King Jewel Master powerhouse. However, they were not considered threats to humans as they usually stuck to themselves, and did not venture into the human world.

At the same time, every dragon was considered a treasure trove to humans. They had the habit of collecting treasure, and it was common for their habitats to have a huge amount of treasure like gold and gems. That was not the only thing; the entire body of the dragon was considered a treasure in itself; their scales were extremely durable and suitable for making scale armour, dragon blood and ground dragon bones were some of the top quality Consolidating Equipment materials, while their nucleus core was the top quality of all Heavenly Nucleus Cores. It could be said their entire body was treasure to humans!

The Heavenly Dragon Holy Fruit was, as its name suggests, linked to the habitats of dragons, and could only grow in their habitats. A dragon’s saliva would drip onto the ground, and after hundreds of years, only then would the area be suitable for Heavenly Dragon Holy Fruits to grow. They were considered top quality healing items, and also had a powerful effect of strengthening physiques. If a normal human drank

the juice of the Heavenly Dragon Holy Fruit, as long as he wasn’t older than thirty years old, just a single drop would actually be enough to Awaken their personal Power Jewel, to become a Jewel Master! As for Jewel Masters, it was able to heal almost all physical wounds.

With the aid of the Heavenly Dragon Holy Fruit juice, Zhou Weiqing’s own amazing regenerative capabilities was brought to full power, and his meridians knit themselves together at amazing speed. By the time Shangguan Longyin removed his hands, his Heavenly Energy was fully back in proper circulation.

Standing beside Zhou Weiqing, Shangguan Longyin showed a pondering look, almost uncertain, and remained silent for a moment.

“Senior Shangguan, Leader will not be able to last long.” It was only when one of the Dan Dun Battle Team members called out urgently did Shangguan Longyin break out of his reverie. He placed a palm softly on Zhou Weiqing’s head, who shuddered, before slowly opening his eyes.

Waking up to see Shangguan Longyin right in front of him, Zhou Weiqing started. The next instant, he felt the sudden changes in his body.

Although he still hurt from head to toe, it was already much better than the unbearable agony he was in before he had lost consciousness. At the same time, he could also feel the energy drawn from the fourteen energy whirlpools of his Death Acupuncture Points, constantly re-nourishing his body as he could sense his meridians mending.

“Thank you Senior for helping me heal.” With Zhou Weiqing’s intelligence, how he could he not understand what had happened.

Shangguan Longyin nodded to him, not concealing his approval of the youth in front of him.

Lin TianAo quickly stepped forward towards Zhou Weiqing, softly telling him about Shangguan Longyin’s promise. Zhou Weiqing looked at him questioningly, and seeing Lin TianAo nodding to him, he understood that his companions were not against him saving Shen Little Demon, and he knew it would only be a beneﬁt to them all.

“Since Senior has given his guarantee, we have nothing to worry about. However, I am not conﬁdent in my own abilities in saving Miss Shen, after all this was actually the ﬁrst time I’ve also used that Skill. Let me try.”

Shangguan Longyin nodded, saying: “I understand, if even you aren’t able to save her, then there is no other choice.” As he said that he turned to the Dan Dun Battle Team members and waved to them.

Although they were full of hate and animosity towards the Fei Li Battle Team, they did not dare to show any sign of it or delay. After all, this was their leader’s survival at stake. As such, they quickly carried her in.

The Rest House was just enough for a single team, and it was extremely crowded now with all of them in it. Looking at Shen Little Demon, pale faced and shivering while constantly glowing in the three different colours, Zhou Weiqing couldn’t help but feel a strange sensation in his heart. Of course, that feeling was not because of Shen Little Demon’s looks, but because of the Dark Demon God Lightning. Although he had previously said he would no longer use it without any compelling reason, he was truly thirsting for its unbelievable power. If he could truly control this amazing

triple-attribute skill, it was without a doubt it would be an extremely lethal weapon in his arsenal, especially against opponents higher level than he was.

As he thought about that, he pondered slightly to himself before saying: “Please place her on the ground.”

The members of the Dan Dun Battle Team quickly laid her down. Although they did not know how to treat this youth in front of them, who had caused such an injury to their Leader, Shangguan Longyin was right next to them, and Zhou Weiqing had also agreed to heal their Leader, and they would naturally abide by their agreement.

However, Zhou Weiqing’s following actions caused them all to reveal a violent rage.

Zhou Weiqing lifted up his right foot, placing it right on Shen Little Demon’s chest. “What are you doing?!” Lan Feng was about to charge forward, but was stopped by a hand from Shangguan Longyin.

Shangguan Longyin said solemnly: “He let loose that attack from his right leg. If I am not wrong, only his right leg is able to withstand the power of it.”

The members of the Dan Dun Battle Team started, halting hesitatingly, but their eyes still showed their anger and humiliation. No matter what, Shen Little Demon was still being stepped on by Zhou Weiqing, and the sheer humiliation and disgrace of it caused their faces to turn red in rage.

Naturally, Zhuo Weiqing ignored them all. The only thing in his mind was currently: 35D… stepping on it sure feels soft… and springy!

Of course, he was not the rash, impetuous youngling of two years back, and would never speak such thoughts out loud. Instead, he looked on calmly, the solemn picture of a gentleman.

Circulating his Heavenly Energy, Zhou Weiqing pressed the sole of his foot against her heart, infusing his Heavenly Energy into her body. However, the infusion was met with puzzlement. Although he could sense the three wildly rampaging energy forces within her body, he was still unable to draw them out with his powerful right leg.

Inspiration struck. Zhou Weiqing bent down, the Heavenly Jewels around his wrists appearing swiftly, and he placed his palms down onto her chest.

This time, not only the Dan Dun Battle Team, but even the members of the Fei Li Battle Team all stared in shock, their eyes wide and jaws open. However, before anyone could call out to stop him, Shen Little Demon’s circumstance changed.

Black, grey and blue. The three lights instantly ﬂickered around Zhou Weiqing’s palm, as the lights around Shen Little Demon were drawn towards his palms, just like he had Devoured her Heavenly Energy on the tournament stage.

Indeed, he had to unleash the Devour Skill through his palms.

Seeing it take effect on their Leader was the only thing stopping the Dan Dun Battle Team members from charging forward to stop it. Even so, they clenched their ﬁsts and gritted their teeth. What sort of healing was this? Was he doing this on purpose to humiliate them?

Zhou Weiqing was totally enjoying himself. Originally, when he had taken action, he truly did not have any dirty thoughts; the reason why he chose the chest area to take action was because that was where the Dark Demon God Lightning had struck.

Of course, when his hands actually pressed forward and he started Devouring the Heavenly Energy, the feeling in his palms, soft, yet springy, it was just amazing. Furthermore, as the three Attribute Heavenly Energy was drawn into him from her body, it was immediately transformed into his own Heavenly Energy, giving him a surge of strength. After all, it was originally formed from his own Heavenly Energy! That was not the only thing. Along with the three Attribute Heavenly Energy came Shen Little Demon’s own personal, pure Heavenly Energy. The energy coursed through his own drained body, reinvigorating it and surging through his meridians, hastening his recovery.

Shen Little Demon’s complexion gradually improved, and the violent shivering was also improving. Shangguan Longyin, standing at the side, nodded his head approvingly. He was an extremely experienced Heavenly Jewel Master, and had seen many things in his time, and was thus the only one who could easily tell that Zhou Weiqing was doing so because the Dark Demon God Lightning was originally struck at her chest.

After about ﬁfteen minutes, Zhou Weiqing ﬁnally lifted his hands. Shen Little Demon was no longer shivering, but her face was still pale. This was actually due to Zhou Weiqing’s Devour Skill, though he had let her off; if not, he could have totally drained her dry since she was unable to resist.

Of course, he would never do such a thing. He had ‘touched’ her after all, and it wouldn’t do to just kill her off like that. Especially since Shangguan Longyin and her teammates were just right there. Withdrawing his hands and leg, Zhou Weiqing stepped back. Reaching into his Spatial Necklace, he took out a set of fresh clothing, and quickly donned them; as he was still almost naked after his clothes had burst apart in the previous ﬁght. “Senior Shangguan, it’s done.”

Shangguan Longyin nodded, and the members of the Dan Dun Battle Team quickly supported Shen Little Demon up again. They glared at Zhou Weiqing with hostile gazes.

Lan Feng said coldly: “The mountains may not move, but the waters will ﬂow. We will meet again. If not for the weather today, you would have been killed today. Thank you Senior Shangguan. Let’s go.”

The members of the Dan Dun Battle Team turned and walked out, and Zhou Weiqing turned towards Shangguan Longyin with a rather wronged look upon his face. “Senior Shangguan… look at them…”

Shangguan Longyin said solemnly: “You all do not need to worry, since this old fellow has already spoken out, I will deﬁnitely ensure it. If the Blood Red Hell gives you trouble, I will not sit by and watch. I trust that they will also not forget my words.” Zhou Weiqing said curiously: “Senior Shangguan, what did Lan Feng mean just now about the weather?”

Shangguan Longyin turned to him in surprise, saying: “Your Darkness and Evil Attributes both work better during overcast weather; while Shen Little Demon’s Light and Fire Attributes are both stronger during a clear, sunny day. In fact, some of the Blood Red Hell’s secret techniques require sunlight to unleash. Didn’t you know that?”

Zhou Weiqing’s eyes widened as he exclaimed: “Different attributes are affected differently by the weather?! Skills requiring the weather to unleash?”

Shangguan Longyin shook his head helplessly, saying: “Who taught you how to cultivate? How could you not know such basic things?”

The Fei Li Battle Team members hid their smiles as they stood at the side. By now, they were already used to Zhou Weiqing’s situation; he was always able to think of some unconstrained and unique ideas, especially in combat, and he also had that enviable amount of Attributes… but in terms of basic knowledge, he was indeed terrible. Zhou Weiqing scratched his head in embarrassment, saying: “My teacher was a Physical Jewel Master, not a Heavenly Jewel Master, and I never attended any specialised school. In terms of Elemental Jewels and their interaction with the weather, he naturally wouldn’t be able to teach me anything about it.”

Shangguan Longyin started. After a moment of silence, he said: “Zhou Weiqing, I’d like to have a moment alone to talk to you.”

Without hesitation, Zhou Weiqing said: “Okay.”

The other members of the Fei Li Battle Team understood, and quickly stood up automatically, walking out of the Rest House to give the two room to talk.

Shangguan Longyin waved his hands, enveloping the entire Rest House in a faint white glow, as his powerful Heavenly Energy easily separated the Rest House from the outside world.

“Weiqing… I’ll call you that from now on alright. Earlier, when I was helping you with your injuries, I noticed that your cultivation method was extremely unique, so much so that this old fellow has not even seen it before. It could be said to be almost miraculous. I’m relatively familiar with all the cultivation techniques of all the Great Saint Lands, and I am certain that none of them have anything like this at all!”

“Not only does your cultivation technique have an amazing automatic drawing of Heavenly Energy, it actually forms an interesting defensive shield that is beyond the ordinary basic Heavenly Energy Shield. Even if those are the only beneﬁts, it is already equal or better than any of the Great Saint Lands’ cultivation techniques. It seems that this, coupled with your multiple attributes, has allowed you to best Shen Little Demon this time. Even though there are elements of luck and surprise in that victory, it is only because your basic foundation is extremely well built. Can you tell me what this cultivation technique i called? I do not have any other meaning, if you do not wish to say, I will not force you.”

Zhou Weiqing was silent for a moment, before he ﬁnally said: “This technique is called the Immortal Deity Technique, and I came across it by accident.”

“Immortal Deity Technique?” Shangguan Longyin muttered to himself, then nodded approvingly. “A powerful, dominant name indeed. Weiqing, I have a proposition for you.”

Zhou Weiqing’s heart skipped a beat, but he remained impassive on the surface as he said calmly: “Please.” Shangguan Longyin continued: “You should already know that our ZhongTian Empire is supported by the Heaven’s Expanse Palace, and our Heaven’s Expanse Palace originates from the Heavenly Jewel Island. In terms of history and background, the Heaven’s Expanse Palace is actually the latest of the Five Great Saint Lands to appear, but we are placed at the head of the Five Great Saint Lands, not because we overpower them in terms of combat prowess, but because of our sheer wealth.”

Zhou Weiqing did not interrupt Shangguan Longyin, listening silently at the side. He was more than happy to learn more about the secrets of the Heaven’s Expanse Palace.

Shangguan Longyin continued: “This wealth originates from the Heavenly Jewel Island, and I am not afraid to tell you this – on the Heavenly Jewel Island, there used to be thirteen dragon lairs, and it was exactly the wealth within these thirteen that was the base of the rise of today’s Heaven’s Expanse Palace, allowing us to have many riches, but more importantly, various rare treasures, allowing us to recruit vast amounts of talents and gather top quality Consolidating Equipment Masters. Slowly, with the powerful Consolidating Equipment advantage, we became one of the Great Saint Lands, and eventually developing into the ﬁrst of them as we are currently.” Thirteen dragon lairs! When Zhou Weiqing heard those words, his eyes lit up. Every dragon was a thing of legend, and their wealth was equally so, as the last one to be found in the Mainland had been a long time ago. Yet, the Heavenly Jewel Island had thirteen of them! It was no wonder that the Heaven’s Expanse Palace had so many treasures. Just like what Shangguan Longyin had said, it was these treasures that had helped build up the Heaven’s Expanse Palace to what it was today.

As for why Shangguan Longyin told him all of that, he had a faint idea what was coming next.

Shangguan Longyin continued: “However, just depending on these treasures to create Consolidating Equipment Scrolls is not sufﬁcient to maintain us forever, as they will run out eventually, no matter how long it takes. In terms of designs, we have no issues, and are far at the forefront of any others. However, a God Tier Consolidating Equipment Scroll just burns too much materials. Although, at present, it seems like we are in no danger of running out any time soon, it is never too early to start planning for the inevitable… as who knows when they will run out.”

“Amongst the other four Great Saint Lands, the Heavenly Demon Sect has the Demonic Attribute, the Life Attribute and other secret arts, the Blood Red Hell has the Fire Attribute and Light Attribute secret arts, the Passion Valley has the Time Attribute secret arts, and the Heavenly Snow Mountain tops them all with two Saint Attributes, the Divine and Spirit Attributes, and their secret arts. If all the Great Saint Lands were to ﬁght without any Consolidated Equipment, it could be said that we would not be able to win any of them. As such, all these years, we have been looking for some suitable secret arts

and techniques for our Heaven’s Expanse Palace.”

“Earlier, when I was helping to heal you, I noticed the miraculous abilities of your cultivation technique. Besides what I mentioned, your recovery speeds are also unheard of, such a speed of recovery of Heavenly Energy, it is incomparable to any other cultivation technique I know of.”

“I will not beat around the bush.The reason I have explained all of that to you is because I am offering to pay for your cultivation technique, in exchange for any treasures you might require.”

Shangguan Longyin’s voice was sincere. He was indeed highly interested in the Immortal Deity Technique; as the Skill Storing Palace Master, not only was he of high rank in the ZhongTian Empire, but also the Heaven’s Expanse Palace. He knew such cultivation techniques could not be easily forced or seized; should he try to get it from Zhou Weiqing forcefully, even if he tampered with a few lines, it could cause irreparable damage to the Heaven’s Expanse Palace. As such, even if he didn’t have high hopes, he still tried his luck at purchasing the technique.”

Hearing Shangguan Longyin’s words, Zhou Weiqing gave an awkward expression. With a bitter smile, he said: “Senior Shangguan, you know that nobody wishes for their cultivation technique to be spread, especially these top quality ones…”

Shangguan Longyin sighed. Zhou Weiqing’s answer was within his expectation. After all, it was rare that anyone would be willing to sell their cultivation technique, and perhaps risk their weakness being discovered. A top quality cultivation technique could mean the rise and fall of a Heavenly Jewel Master faction… and was usually considered priceless.

He did not pursue it further, only hoping that if Zhou Weiqing married Shangguan Bing’er in the future, perhaps he would have another chance to bring the technique into the Heaven’s Expanse Palace.

Right at that moment, he suddenly heard some words of hope from Zhou Weiqing. “However……”

The troubled look on Zhou Weiqing’s face did not change, but he drawled out a possibility.

“However… what?” Shangguan Longyin immediately seized the chance, continuing: “You do not need to worry. As long as you are willing to sell it, we will deﬁnitely be able to give you what you require. No matter what treasures or Consolidating Equipment materials, as long as it is not too absurd, I am certain we will be able to satisfy you.”

As he said that, Shangguan Longyin was extremely conﬁdent. After all, in terms of wealth, who could compare with the top of the Great Saint Lands, the Heaven’s Expanse Palace?

Looking at Shangguan Longyin’s face of urgency, Zhou Weiqing was laughing in his heart. Naturally, his acting skills had come into play once more, the troubled look on his face a practiced one. Although the Heaven’s Expanse Palace was Shangguan Bing’er’s home, he had not gotten a good reception from Shangguan Tianyue. Furthermore, this was an equivalent exchange… not considered cheating… right? There isn’t a direct translation for this as it is a term coined for Xiuzhen/ Xianxia type stories. 天材地宝, literally translated as Heaven and Earth Treasures, refers to rare plants, animals, ores etc which have unique properties which help in cultivation by either improving physiques, gaining cultivation strength, increasing lifespan, curing diseases/ healing wounds etc etc. It’s a rather generic term.

Chapter 90 We’re Rich!

Alas for Shangguan Longyin, how could he have known that although Zhou Weiqing did not learn anything much about Heavenly Jewel Masters from his teacher, he learnt all the street smarts and social experience from him, more so… the art of being a rogue, a scoundrel, con man, peeking at women’s baths… such skills were trained eminently indeed.

Furthermore, as he grew older, these skills were kept well hidden, deep within his bones, and could not be easily detected from the surface. That Zhou Weiqing was undoubtedly much more dangerous… perhaps sly and cunning would be more aptly put.

When he heard that Shangguan Longyin wanted the Immortal Deity Technique, Zhou Weiqing’s heart almost burst with joy. That Immortal Deity Technique was indeed miraculous, but in truth, who would be willing to train such an insane technique given a choice? If not for that black pearl he had swallowed a long time ago, he would have died many times from this technique.

It could be said that this technique would be practically useless to most people; even if it were any outstanding genius, perhaps breaking through a few Death Acupuncture Points was no problem, but would they be able to last all the way? In fact, Zhou Weiqing wasn’t even conﬁdent of being able to complete it himself, but he was already stuck on this path, and had no other choice.

Such a almost suicidal technique, how much could it be worth? It was indeed miraculous, but no one wanted to die from cultivating!

Of course, Zhou Weiqing wouldn’t say this now… his excuse being that… Shangguan Longyin didn’t ask further!

If he could make use of the Immortal Deity Technique to exchange for some important treasures, that would be an insane proﬁt for him. Anyway, that was his future father-in- law’s family, he was making an exchange on his own abilities… why not?

As such, Zhou Weiqing planted the seeds of foreshadowing. If Mu En had been here to look at his troubled look… he would instantly know it was the beginnings of his art of ﬂeecing.

Zhou Weiqing furrowed his brow, as if deep in thought. After a while of hesitation, he seemed to make up his mind as his face set in resolution. “Senior Shangguan, there is something I deﬁnitely have to tell you. My ﬁancee’s name is Shangguan Bing’er, and if I am not wrong, she is the daughter of one of the higher-ups in the Heaven’s Expanse Palace. A few days ago, they ﬁnally met, and her father brought her away, saying that I do not have the qualiﬁcation to marry his daughter. If not for that, I wouldn’t have revealed my hand in pitting my life against Shen Little Demon today. In order to prove myself to her father, to prove that I have the power to protect Bing’er, I

almost died today on the stage. I can give up this Immortal Deity Technique, but I have two conditions.”

It was Shangguan Longyin’s turn to be troubled, and with a bitter smile, he said: “If it were any goods or treasures, I can deﬁnitely make the decision. However, Lady Bing’er is out of my control, as she is our Second Palace Master’s daughter, the First Palace Master’s niece. It will not be an easy task to marry her, and I do not have the right to make such a decision for the Second Palace Master.”

Zhou Weiqing sighed and said: “I originally wanted to give the Immortal Deity Technique as a wedding gift, but since you said that, let’s leave it at that for now. However, I am conﬁdent that I will be able to touch my future father-in-law with my sincerity and own power.” In truth, he did not even intend to use the Immortal Deity Technique to exchange for Bing’er. Not to mention the fact that Shangguan Tianyue might not agree, he personally felt that doing so was a cowardly move. He would deﬁnitely use his own abilities to prove to Shangguan Tianyue that he could protect Bing’er, and was worthy of her!

As for why he started off with that in his negotiations with Shangguan Longyin, as the saying goes: Demand an exorbitant price at the start, and you will have the upper hand in bargaining negotiations!

“Since you aren’t able to agree to the ﬁrst condition, let’s talk about the second condition. Earlier, you said that there are thirteen dragon lairs on the Heavenly Jewel Island… that means you all have dragons? My Immortal Deity Technique is deﬁnitely a priceless treasure, I’ll exchange it for a pet dragon… that’s not too much right? Ahh… if only I had the Beastmaster Skills of the Heavenly Snow Mountain to control the dragon, that would be even better.”

Hearing Zhou Weiqing’s words, Shangguan Longyin sweatdropped. If not for the fact that Zhou Weiqing had an honest look on his face, not looking like any fraudulent of crafty person, and he also had a longing look on his face as he said it, Shangguan Longyin would have thought that this young rascal was fooling and taunting him.

“What do you think dragons are? Even if we had a dragon, how could we possibly give you one?! That is our symbol, our totem!”

Zhou Weiqing looked at him, wide eyed and innocent, with a surprised look on his face. “Senior Shangguan, surely you do not mean that my Immortal Deity Technique isn’t worth a dragon? No matter how long a dragon lives, it will die one day… but my Immortal Deity Technique can be passed down forever. One dragon is already considered a loss to me!”

“This……” Shangguan Longyin hesitated. Earlier, when he had rejected Zhou Weiqing, he had not thought much about it. Now, upon hearing Zhou Weiqing’s arguments, he was left tongue-tied. Indeed, what Zhou Weiqing was somewhat true, with the miraculous cultivation technique, if the Heaven’s Expanse Palace managed to gain it, even if the Heavenly Jewel Island treasure was used up in the future, they would still be able to remain one of the Five Great Saint Lands.

Shangguan Longyin suddenly realised that the situation was slipping out of his control. Furrowing his brow, he said: “Weiqing, you can’t totally count it like that. It isn’t about whether or not your Immortal Deity Technique is of lesser worth than a Dragon, but to the Heaven’s Expanse Palace, dragon are of utmost importance. This is not something I can decide on my own. How about this, I will head back to report to the two Palace Masters and His Majesty, and they will make the decision. The Heavenly Jewel Tournament will still be going on for quite some time, and I will come look for you after I have an answer.”

After saying that, Shangguan Longyin waved his hand, and the white light barrier disappeared. The next moment, he vanished from Zhou Weiqing’s sight.

Now, it was Zhou Weiqing’s turn to stare, jaw agape. In truth, he did not even want a Dragon, in his opinion, that was an impossible request. The reason he had brought up Bing’er and the Dragon was actually just a bargaining trick, to put his initial offer as high up as possible before starting the actual haggling. Alas, who would have thought that this Skill Storing Palace Master was just too straightforward, and even more so, it seemed like he had truly placed major importance on the Immortal Deity Technique, and had not even bothered haggling before leaving.

Zhou Weiqing had always felt that his bargaining and ‘conning’ abilities were already at the top level, but he was still struck speechless by what had happened.

Still, this actually gave him an even better impression of Shangguan Longyin; at least he had been very sincere. From the bottom of one of the couches at the back of the Rest House, Fat Cat crawled out from a corner. She(It) looked extremely shabby and nonplussed, with a strange look in her eyes. Earlier, she had scrambled under the couch, and had spent every effort she could in order to not be found out by Shangguan Longyin. Although no one else had heard Shangguan Longyin’s words to Zhou Weiqing, she had heard everything clearly.

The members of the Fei Li Battle Team returned to the Rest House; towards the other ﬁghts in the tournament, they were not really interested. As soon as Crow entered, she ran towards Zhou Weiqing, extending her arms in a big hug as she shouted: “Weiqing, I love you!”

Zhou Weiqing was startled, dodging aside swiftly as he said: “Crow, what are you doing? I am still injured!”

Crow grinned and said: “Heh, Weiqing, we’re rich! Come on, let’s go collect our money… what if they renege on the bet? It’s only real when we get it hold the money in our hands.”

Hearing her words, Zhou Weiqing’s eyes lit up. That’s right! It’s safer to get the money in our hands as soon as possible, after all… after all… DAMN! It’s a hundred million gold coins!! Zhou Weiqing even shocked himself with the number, and gulping a mouthful of saliva, he exclaimed: “What are we waiting for then? Let’s go!”

As he said that, he charged forward ahead of his team. Fat Cat leaped up from behind, catching hold of his clothes and clambering onto his shoulder, before sliding back into her spot in his bosom.

The entire Fei Li Battle Team members’ eyes seemed to lit aﬁre, and they also followed suit. Although their winnings paled in comparison to Zhou Weiqing and Crow, it was still a million gold coins each, deﬁnitely a massive sum.

As the Fei Li Battle Team left, the ﬁght on the stage continued. Before long, an old man approached Shangguan Tianxin softly.

“Your Majesty, this ofﬁcial have something to report.” He said softly.

Shangguan Tianxin was currently feeling rather disquiet; the battle between Zhou Weiqing and Shen Little Demon constantly in his mind. After the ﬁght, Shangguan Longyin had also left, and the King had been left waiting urgently for news, without any mood to continue watching the other ﬁghts.

Hearing the old man’s voice, Shangguan Tianxin turned around. It was his Finance Minister. “ZhanTang, what is it?”

The ﬁnance minister, Long ZhangTang, gave a bitter smile and said: “Your Majesty, the Fei Li Battle Team members actually all bet a lot on their ﬁght this morning… that Zhou Weiqing alone bet a million gold coins. They are actually here to collect their winnings now, and it is no small sum. What is Your Majesty’s decision?”

The odds were set by the ZhongTian Empire, and the entire betting was controlled by them. It would be easy for them to renege on it if they truly wanted, with at least ten ways they could use to avoid paying out.

Shangguan Tianxin started, and his mouth twitched a little. After a moment of silence, he ﬁnally said: “Give it to them, we shall not throw our face as the greatest Empire. We’ll pay out what we owe.” Long ZhanTang hesitated a while, before saying: “Your Majesty, that is almost seven percent of our usual annual gross national revenue! Our total proﬁts from this year’s Heavenly Jewel Tournament betting is barely above one hundred and sixty million gold coins, if we pay out a hundred million gold coins, we would have almost put in all that effort for nothing.”

Shangguan Tianxin gave a humph and said: “What do you suggest then? Renege on it? They fought this and won on their own power. A three Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master beating a six Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master… that is not only a miracle, it shows his power and talent. Go, do as I said.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Long ZhanTang did not dare protest further, quickly leaving after acknowledgement.

Seeing his ﬁnance minister leave, only then did Shangguan Tianxin turn back, shaking his head. He muttered to himself: “Little brat, are you trying to get Bing’er’s dowry beforehand? Our ZhongTian Empire’s money isn’t that easy to earn. Where is Longyin? What has happened that he hasn’t returned after such a long time?” Naturally, the Fei Li Battle Team members did not know that they had given the ZhongTian Emperor a sore heart. When Zhou Weiqing got the shining gold card with thirty two gold various coloured gems inset on it, a huge grin appeared on his face.

This was the most famous gold storage card in the entire mainland, formed by the ZhongTian Bank, and could be used almost everywhere. There were branches even in the WanShou Empire, and could be said to be the ‘safest’ form of currency.

Furthermore, this was the highest class of storage cards, which had a normal contracting and a blood binding function, which had soulbound the card to Zhou Weiqing. Only Zhou Weiqing could make use of both bloodline and spirit energy to gain access to the card. In it was exactly a hundred and one million gold coins.

“I’m rich, I’m really rich now!” There were gold coins dancing in Zhou Weiqing’s eyes as they glowed in glee, as he stood at a side grinning foolishly to himself for almost ten minutes. He almost forgot the pain in his body, and had to be dragged back by the rest of the Fei Li Battle Team members to their hotel. It wasn’t just Zhou Weiqing who lost his cool; every single member of the Fei Li Battle Team felt as if they were in a dream.

To be able to actually defeat one of the seeded teams, not just by strategy, but actually defeating their top two powerhouses, such a brilliant victory was something they had not even dreamt of.

Today’s victory meant that they would actually ascend to the top eight quarterﬁnals as the First Position in Group 3. That also meant that their next opponent would be the second position of another group, which would deﬁnitely not be another team, while the Dan Dun Battle Team would have to ﬁght against another seeded team!

Even though they had not drawn lots on their opponents yet, the results were almost a certainty. Without their top two powerhouses, the Dan Dun Battle Team was almost certainly unable to defeat another seeded team, and would lose their top four spot for the ﬁrst time in a long time. As for the Fei Li Battle Team, they would certainly have a large chance in making the top four.

This was also the main reason why Zhou Weiqing had suggested that they challenge the Dan Dun Battle Team in the preliminary heats. After all, they would have to face a seeded team no matter what, and facing an unprepared Dan Dun Battle Team was much better than possibly drawing the ZhongTian Battle Team or the WanShou Battle Team.

As soon as they returned to their hotel, Zhou Weiqing collapsed onto his bed. It wasn’t that he did not want to celebrate with his companions, but he was just too exhausted, and not fully recovered from his injuries yet. He needed all the rest he could get. Still, even though he fell asleep almost instantly, he still placed the VIP Storage Card of the ZhongTian Bank on his forehead, the foolish grin still on his face as he snored away.

Having displayed all his considerable talents in the previous ﬁght, he was certain that Shangguan Longyin would relay that to Shangguan Tianyue, and this was indeed Zhou Weiqing’s goal. As such, he could ﬁnally get a good rest. What was more comfortable than a good sleep after accomplishing one’s goal? Especially since the past few days he had been under much strain and tension.

It was time to relax for a while.

Nobody came to disturb Zhou Weiqing, and he slept for more than twelve hours, through the night and into the day before he awoke, refreshed and satisﬁed.

However, as soon as he crawled out of bed, he did not go for a bath or even to look for his companions, instead rushing to the dining hall, polishing off a huge meal like the wind blowing the clouds away.

Zhou Weiqing’s awakening had alerted the other members of the Fei Li Battle Team, and they soon followed him into the dining hall. However, when they entered, they did not sit together with Zhou Weiqing, instead sitting at another corner.

There weren’t that many people in the dining hall, it was barely thirty percent ﬁlled, and most of them were staring with their jaws agape at this young fellow sitting without nary a care for his image, one foot on another chair as he gorged away at an insane speed. Naturally, that was Zhou Weiqing.

It was as if he was a hungry ghost who had been reincarnated for his ﬁrst meal in ages.

The other members of the Fei Li Battle Team gave a look as if they did not recognize him, sitting quietly at their corner. From Zhou Weiqing’s appetite, the other members could tell that he was probably recovered, or at least well on his way to recovery. Since Xiao Yan and Drunken Bao had not taken any action in the entire preliminary heats, and their injuries were now fully recovered, the entire team was actually at their

maximum after defeating the Dan Dun Battle Team, instead of being lowered as they had expected. They were indeed fully ready for their next ﬁght.

Finally, Zhou Weiqing threw his spoon on the table after ﬁnishing a last bowl of fresh seafood soup, exclaiming: “Ahhh, that was good–!”

He was rather loud, startling a nearby customer who spat out a mouthful of soup onto his friend. However, neither of them dared to ﬂare out at him.

Zhou Weiqing was getting stronger and more robust, and it showed in his impressive physique. After his second evolving, his stature and built had almost caught up to Lin TianAo. No ordinary person would easily cause trouble with him.

Hearing Zhou Weiqing’s cry, the other members of the Fei Li Battle Team sweatdropped. Little Four said with a disdainful look: “Ahh, such a disgrace… such a disgrace!” Crow glanced at him and said: “What so disgraceful? That’s called forthright, spontaneous! If it were in our Gold Crow Tribe, many maidens would fall for him!”

Drunken Bao burst out laughing, saying: “Alas, even Weiqing’s physique will not be able to endure the six hundred jin weight!”

Crow blushed and lowered her head, saying abashedly: “If we haven’t tried it, how do you know he will not be able to endure it? In my opinion, Weiqing will have no problems. Alas, I already have a ﬁance, if not I will deﬁnitely chase him!”

The usually quiet Xiao Yan said passively: “If you had said that to him a few moments ago, I’m sure he wouldn’t have been gorging away so happily.”

At that point, Zhou Weiqing walked over with a satisﬁed look on his face, saying: “It is never wrong to love someone. How could I be offended by that? Sis Crow is so beautiful, you all just do not know how to appreciate her.”

On hearing that, Crow’s eyes widened, and she said: “Weiqing, how about I retract my marriage and follow you instead? Do not worry, I know you already have Bing’er, she can be the main wife, and I can be the second. How about that?”

Looking at her, Zhou Weiqing’s pupils contracted, and he thought to himself: Sis, how are you small in any way? Of course, he would never say that out loud, instead saying sternly and righteously: “Crow, that is very wrong of you. Since you already have a ﬁance, how can you have such a notion? That will badly affect the good impression I have of you!”

Crow blushed, then sighed heavily with a helpless look on her face: “Ahh, I regret meeting you before marriage!”

Lin TianAo stood up, an exasperated look on his face as he said: “You guys go ahead, I’m heading back ﬁrst. Weiqing, when you’re done here, come over with the rest to discuss our strategy for the next ﬁght.”

Zhou Weiqing did not dare tease Crow any longer; if she really decided to chase him, it would backﬁre on him instead!

“Come on, let’s head back with Leader to discuss the ﬁght.” As he said that, he placed an arm around Lin TianAo’s shoulder and quickly walked off with him. Ye Paopao laughed, saying; “Weiqing, that rascal, sometimes I feel like punching him indeed.”

Xiao Yan said passively: “Agreed.” Drunken Bao said: “+1”

Little Four continued: “+1 too!”

Crow paused, then said happily: “If you all beat him up, can I watch?”

…

Back in Lin TianAo’s room.

The seven members of the Fei Li Battle Team sat in a circle, and sensing the hostile looks of his teammates, Zhou Weiqing sat quietly at a corner, like a punching bag.

Lin TianAo glanced at him, then said: “I’ll summarise our ﬁght with the Dan Dun Battle Team before we discuss the next ﬁght. Indeed, we did win this ﬁght, and with that, we have a good chance of entering the top four of the Heavenly Jewel Tournament. However, I have to say that luck was truly on our side.”

“If not for a large amount of luck, Little Four would deﬁnitely have not been able to kill that Han Bing. In truth, whether it was to save their true power, or because they underestimated us, the Dan Dun Battle Team did not send out a proper formation or their full power. It can be said that his death was truly for nothing. Now… although Senior Shangguan Longyin has made us the promise, we cannot guarantee that the Blood Red Hell will take revenge on our Empire instead.”

“As for the ﬁght between Weiqing and Shen Little Demon…” As he said that, everyone turned to look at Zhou Weiqing.

Lin TianAo said solemnly: “As a Heavenly Jewel Master, Weiqing, I can totally understand, and will not blame you, for hiding your true power. If it were any of us, with so many Attributes, especially the Evil Attribute, we would also choose to hide it. However, what I cannot forgive is you pitting your life against Shen Little Demon, especially without informing us, and almost dying there and then. Have you thought about what it would do to us as a team? If you fought and died there on the stage, who would plan and strategize for us? If you fought and died there on the stage, perhaps we would have been enraged and fought to the death with the Dan Dun Battle Team, how many of us would have survived then? I repeat the words I said previously; since I brought all of you here, my goal is to bring all of you back unharmed. If there is a second time, I will remove you from the team. Do you understand?”

Looking at the grave look on Lin TianAo’s serious face, Zhou Weiqing nodded, not speaking a word.

Lin TianAo continued: “Alright, enough about that. Now, the actual drawing lots will be held one day before the quarter ﬁnals. Weiqing, do you have any plan going forward?”

Zhou Weiqing shook his head, saying: “Without knowing our opponent, I’m unable to come up with anything concrete. At least we do know that we will not be facing another seeded team for the next ﬁght. When the water rises we use earth to keep it back, when the soldiers arrive we use a general to hold them at bay. I have conﬁdence that we will be able to face any of the second teams and enter the top four; the only one we need to be careful of will be the Kalise Empire. After all, they have the Heavenly Demon Sect supporting them. Even if they do not dare to use the secret techniques of the Heavenly Demon Sect and reveal themselves, they are still not to be underestimated.” Lin TianAo nodded, saying: “There are four groups, so there is only a quarter chance of us drawing them. We shall discuss our strategy in greater detail the day after tomorrow after drawing lots then.”

After saying that, he swept his gaze around the entire team, before ﬁnally saying softly: “I know that everyone is extremely excited after defeating the Dan Dun Battle Team. However, I must remind everyone not to get ahead of ourselves. We still have not reached our goal, the top four, and are still currently at the top eight. Indeed, we have taken a huge step towards it, but I need all of you to hold yourselves back. There is time for excitement and celebration after we have met our goals. If any of you are overly excited, causing your form to deteriorate, I will not hesitate to stop you from entering the next ﬁght. Understood?”

“Understood!” The rest of the team chorused.

Upon hearing their agreement, only then did Lin TianAo’s face relax, and he smiled. Turning to Zhou Weiqing, he said: “There are still a few days for us to rest, and everyone should get sufﬁcient rest. Of course… defeating the Dan Dun Battle Team is a great team effort… and somebody won a hundred million gold coins! You all decide what you want to do, I’m heading out ﬁrst. I didn’t see anything….” As he said that, he turned out and walked out the door, with Zhou Weiqing staring at him with jaw agape.

The other members also turned their gazes to Zhou Weiqing, green in their eyes as they looked at him wickedly…

Second wife is literally ⼩⽼婆 Small Wife, he is playing on words again

恨不相逢未嫁时, it is an idiom denoting regret of meeting a true love only after one’s marriage

Direct translation of chinese idiom. Basically, meaning ‘Que sera, sera’, or ‘whatever will be, will be’. Face whatever obstacles as they come along. Zhou Weiqing said pitifully: “Everybody… Heroes… Beloved Teammates… you wouldn’t….”

Little Four waggled a brow at him: “Well… that depends on your performance…”

Zhou Weiqing looked pleadingly at Crow: “Sis Crow, you were saying earlier that you wanted to be with me… will you be so hard hearted to see them bully poor, weak little me?”

Crow looked at him vacantly: “Weak? You?”

Drunken Bao said savagely: “Enough, do not let this rascal speak anymore… let’s go!”

“AHHHHH…. NOOOOO…..!” Soon, screams of agony rang throughout the hotel.

…

After the preliminary heats of the Heavenly Jewel Tournament, it was as good as over for the ordinary citizens. After all, the quarterﬁnals were usually without any suspense; though the four seeded teams might meet some resistance, they usually won without any problems.

Of course, this year’s Heavenly Jewel Tournament was extremely different; with the Fei Li Battle Team beating the Dan Dun Battle Team, causing their overall strength to drop drastically, it would deﬁnitely mean a very dynamically different quarterﬁnals. It had been years, even decades, before there had been a different team in the top four of the Heavenly Jewel Tournament, and it seemed like this year would bring a change indeed.

No matter if it were the Fei Li Battle Team or their quarterﬁnal opponent who entered the top four, it was still a major change for the tournament.

…

The quarterﬁnal lots were held as scheduled, a day before the actual ﬁghts. Perhaps the Fei Li Battle Teams luck had been used up in the preliminary heats, and after their draw, all of them had an ugly expression on their faces. Naturally, they had drawn the very team they had been worried about, the strongest team besides the seeded teams, the Kalise Battle Team. According to their guess, the Kalise Battle Team was being supported secretly by the Heavenly Demon Sect. Although their absolute power might perhaps be weaker than the Dan Dun Battle Team, especially with the restrictions on their secret arts, they could not be underestimated at all, especially since they still had powerhouses like Little Witch!

In truth, there was an easy solution – to report them to the ZhongTian Empire that the Heavenly Demon Sect was behind the Kalise Empire. Doing so would probably give them a win through disqualifying their opponent. Alas, if they were to do that, it would also truly offend the Heavenly Demon Sect, perhaps even making mortal enemies out of them.

They had already offended the Blood Red Hell, and if they also offended the Heavenly Demon Sect, how could the Fei Li Empire possibly have any good days ahead? Besides Zhou Weiqing, who was a citizen of the Heavenly Bow Empire, all the other members of the Fei Li Battle Team loved their home country deeply, and would not take such a risk.

“Weiqing, arrange the strategy then. How will we take the ﬁght tomorrow?”

After resting a few days, Zhou Weiqing had nearly fully recovered, and it showed as his face was back to a healthy norm. The next day was the actual ﬁght of the quarterﬁnals, and the entire team had gathered once again in Lin TianAo’s room for a strategy meeting.

Zhou Weiqing sat at the corner of the couch, a ‘sullen’ look on his face as he gave a humph, saying: “No plan, you guys go ahead!”

Looking at his sad look, the entire team burst out laughing.

That day, Zhou Weiqing had been surrounded and attacked by his group of friends, and in the end, he had been forced to agree to buy every one of them a Zong Stage Consolidating Equipment Scroll Set when they entered the Heavenly Jewel Island, giving him a heartache.

After all, each Zong Stage Consolidating Equipment Scroll Set was worth an astronomical amount, even the most ordinary amongst them was at least worth a million gold coins, and the higher quality ones costing about ﬁve to six million gold coins! Some of pieces of a Consolidated Equipment Sets could even cost more than ten million gold coins each! Although they were deﬁnitely much less valuable than a God Tier Consolidating Equipment Scroll, they were still considered a rare treasure out of the Heavenly Jewel Island. Although Zhou Weiqing’s hundred million gold coins seemed like a lot, just gifting the six Zong Stage Consolidating Equipment Scroll Sets alone would at least cost him around twenty to thirty million gold coins!

Lin TianAo laughed heartily, saying: “Alright, Weiqing, stop acting now. Let’s start strategizing.

Zhou Weiqing gave a depressed, wronged look as he said: “You… you guys are just too savage! That’s tens of millions of gold coins! If it were any ordinary Physical or Elemental Jewel Masters, I could give an entire Company of them Consolidated Equipment or Stored Skills!”

The team burst out in laughter once more.

In truth, if Zhou Weiqing had not been willing, no one would have really forced him. Yet, this little rascal had agreed so readily, and then acted in such a vexed fashion; it was no wonder they were all so amused.

Little Four grinned and said: “Weiqing, stop showing off, hurry up and arrange our strategy, isn’t it just a Kalise Empire? We have even beaten the Dan Dun Battle Team, how can we be afraid of them? If we do our best, we can deﬁnitely win; we have already gotten to this point, we deﬁnitely must not end our run prematurely!”

Drunken Bao nodded in agreement, saying: “Indeed, Weiqing. This time, you must deﬁnitely let me and Xiao Yan ﬁght. We haven’t even been able to display our abilities since we entered this ZhongTian City… since you are so generous to us, you can have a good rest this ﬁght! We have a lot of pent up energy to expend!”

Zhou Weiqing stopped acting, grinning widely as he said: “Too much pent up energy? That’s easy! Just look for two chicks, that’s all. Mmm, but you guys better not drag me along! Even if you do, I will not go, I am unbelievably loyal and steadfast.”

Drunken Bao gave a derisive ‘bah’, saying: “You’re loyal and steadfast? Don’t insult those two words okay? Who was the one who was touching Shen Little Demon all over, with that intoxicated face… almost causing the entire Dan Dun Battle Team to ﬁght with us to the death? The way I seeit, as long as its female, you won’t let them off. In your dictionary, there are only two requirements for women. Alive, and female!”

Hearing Drunken Bao’s words, Crow quickly drew forward, grinning as she said: “In that case, Weiqing, our Gold Crow Tribe can deﬁnitely satisfy you. After the tournament, you can return with me, how about that?”

Zhou Weiqing’s face changed, and he quickly said with a serious face: “Time to strategize indeed. Drunken Bao, I do not think it is necessary for you to ﬁght this round, you are our hidden trump, we will save your power until the semi ﬁnals. Crow, what about you?”

Crow quickly said readily: “En, it is your decision to come to the Gold Crow Tribe, of course I will not force you.” As she said that, she giggled, then clapped Zhou Weiqing’s shoulder in a brotherly fashion. “Weiqing, I’m wrong.”

It was now Drunken Bao’s turn to stare pitifully.

Just as the team was laughing and joking with each other, all of a sudden, they were interrupted by a sudden knock on the door.

Hearing the noise, all their faces changed. Although they had been joking around with each other, out of habit they had kept their senses peeled, and yet even the highest cultivation level amongst them, Lin TianAo, had not sensed anyone approaching. It was clear that whoever was outside the door was of a higher cultivation level.

Lin TianAo signalled to the rest, and the room immediately quieted down. He then turned and opened the door.

Little Witch was standing outside, clad in a black dress, and as she saw the door open to reveal the team, she smiled shyly in a radiant fashion, saying: “Hello, everyone.”

Seeing it was her, the Fei Li Battle Team members’ faces turned cold, especially Drunken Bao and Xiao Yan. If not for her, they would not have been so injured that they could not even ﬁght a single ﬁght in the preliminary heats.

Zhou Weiqing furrowed his brow and said: “Why are you here? Are you here to spy on us?”

Wu Yuehan (Little Witch) said aggrievedly: “In your eyes, am I that terrible?” Both had been acting pitiful, but accompanied with her touching beauty, she was deﬁnitely much better at it than Crow, causing even their angry hearts to waver a little. Wu Yuehan continued: “Previously, if not for my reminders, you might not have recovered so easily. I am truly here not to spy on you, but to discuss a deal with you all. May I come in?” As she said that, she bit her right index ﬁnger gently, looking the very picture cuteness.

Lin TianAo made an inviting gesture, letting her enter. All of the Fei Li Battle Team members were here, and were at tip top condition. Even if this Little Witch were to try something, it would not be so easy to succeed. After all, they were all on maximum guard against her.

Wu Yuehan entered room, sitting boldly beside Zhou Weiqing. Pointing at the cup in front of them, she asked Zhou Weiqing sweetly: “Is this your cup?”

Subconsciously, Zhou Weiqing nodded in agreement. As if she could not sense the others’ gazes, Wu Yuehan picked up his cup, drinking it from it naturally before placing it back down. Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced towards Fat Cat, who was lounging at the other side of Zhou Weiqing, a subtle provocation in her eyes.

When they saw her lick her red lips, the male members of the Fei Li Battle Team, including Zhou Weiqing, suddenly felt their mouths parched. This girl was just too seductive. Zhou Weiqing glanced at her, but because he was still standing, at his angle he just happened to see an assuming… seemingly not deep… but perfect looking… … *Gulp* Trying his best to control his expression, he said: “Uhh, Little Witch, so why are you here? Speak directly then.”

Little Witch glanced at him ruefully, saying; “You all do not need to look at me like that, I will be embarrassed. Really, I have no ill intentions in coming here.”

Zhou Weiqing grinned and said: “Heh… You should already know about the result of the drawing lots, and the two of our teams will be meeting in the quarterﬁnals. Even if you hadn’t ambushed and injured my companions previously, we are currently already considered opponents, not friends. At such a time, for you to come to look for us, how can we not be wary? I know your Heavenly Demon Sect really wants to enter the Heavenly Jewel Island right, so it’s not like you will just get that Kalise Empire to surrender right? So, let’s just get straight to the point and not mince matters, I do not really belief that you are here to bring us any good news.”

Wu Yuehan twisted her mouth wryly, before bursting out in a ﬁt of giggles. She said: “You little rascal, you actually guessed correctly. What if I said that I am actually here to tell you that I am willing to let the Kalise Empire surrender, and let your team enter the top four without a ﬁght?”

As soon as she said that, the entire Fei Li Battle Team was taken aback. However, they quickly calmed down, and Lin TianAo said passively: “There is no free lunch in this world… Miss Wu, are you trying to test us for something?”

Wu Yuehan smiled faintly, shaking her head as she continued: “Do I really need to make all that effort to come here to test you for something? Indeed, you have indeed displayed an impressive power during the ﬁght with the Dan Dun Battle Team. However, the more important thing is still strategy. If we were to take things seriously, I believe that the ﬁnal victory between our two teams is very equal, and anything can happen. I wouldn’t need to test you out!”

Cerita silat IndoMandarin

Heavenly Jewel Change Chapter 81-90

Chapter 81 Silver Emperor Wing Slash!

Chapter 82 Evolution! Demonic Change or Zhou Weiqing?

Chapter 83 Challenging the seeded team?

Chapter 84 Tough ﬁght against Dan Dun!

Chapter 85 Frost Priest!

Chapter 86 Han Bing Perishes, Rage of Shen Little Demon!

Chapter 87 Controllable Demonic Change

Chapter 88 Scorpion Tail Hook! Dark Demon God Lightning!

Chapter 89 Three Toxic Venoms

Chapter 90 We’re Rich!

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